Ritz-Craft completes Mifflinburg plant expansion to improve safety, quality

Ritz-Craft has finished a 13,750-square-foot expansion and modernization project at its Plant 3 facility in Mifflinburg, and the company is presenting the upgrade as a direct improvement in how employees work every day. By shifting more production indoors, Ritz-Craft said it reduced weather-related interruptions, created a more controlled environment and made it easier to spot quality problems earlier in the process.

The company said the project is intended to improve worker safety, morale and product quality. That matters in a plant where workflow can be slowed by outside conditions, because keeping more of the work under one roof can mean steadier shifts, fewer disruptions and a safer shop floor for employees moving materials and assembling homes. Ritz-Craft said the tighter production flow should also support more consistent results for homebuyers by improving quality control before products leave the plant.

The expansion adds another chapter to Ritz-Craft’s long presence in Mifflinburg’s manufacturing base. In 2018, Pennsylvania officials announced the company would open a third manufacturing plant in the borough, with plans to create more than 120 new jobs and retain 338 existing employees. That earlier announcement underscored how central the company is to Union County’s industrial workforce, where a major factory investment can affect not only hiring but also retention and the stability of existing jobs.

Interest in the company’s growth has continued. In January 2024, Sen. Gene Yaw and members of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania board visited Ritz-Craft in Union County to discuss future development plans, a sign that public officials were still watching the company’s role in the local economy. A 2023 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice also described a proposal to expand and improve the existing 60,000-square-foot modular home construction plant into as much as 200,000 square feet, suggesting Ritz-Craft’s long-term ambitions in Mifflinburg extend well beyond this latest project.

For Mifflinburg, the completed upgrade signals more than a larger building. It points to a manufacturer investing in a more reliable production line, a safer workplace and a stronger foothold in a borough where factory decisions still ripple through the local economy.