Reitnouer trailer and fabricating plant open in Ontelaunee Township

A huge manufacturing operation has ramped up to full speed at its new home near the intersection of Route 73 and Route 61 in Ontelaunee Township.

The site includes a 450,000-square-foot manufacturing area as well as about 18,000 square feet of offices at 10 Ontelaunee Drive in Ontelaunee Township, completed in late 2025.

Each year, Reitnouer Inc. produces between 3,500 to 4,000 aluminum flatbed trailers, said Bud Reitnouer, owner, president and CEO. They had back orders for many more two to three years ago and the new facility will allow them to increase production.

“The trucking industry as a whole is in a little bit of a recession, flatbeds aren’t immune to that, however we have gained market share,” Reitnouer said. “Marketplace two or three years ago was around 7,000 (trailers per year). Right now our biggest challenge is the aluminum price.”

Reitnouer explained aluminum is traded on the London Market Exchange and it is affected by global situations and the price has been increasing just like other metal prices — gold, silver and copper.

Demand for aluminum has increased, he said, which he believes is driven by increased electric vehicle production which uses aluminum foil in battery construction. He added that data center construction is probably pushing up other metal prices due to the amount of wiring and conduit required.

“Last year, our costs of goods went up 9.5% and the majority of that was the aluminum tariff,” Reitnouer said. “We use roughly 2 million pounds of aluminum a month. It went from $1.40 [per ton] 14-15 months ago to the latest numbers are $2.72, $2.76, something like that.

“So we’re getting hit with a double whammy,” he said. “We’re getting hit with the tariff at the same time we’re getting hit with the base metal going crazy, so it’s really challenging.”

Two operations

“We have two entities here,” Reitnouer said. “We have Reitnouer Inc., which is the trailers, and Reitnouer Enterprises, which is a sister company, a metal fabricating division.”

Most of the groundwork was done by March 2023, but skyrocketing construction costs put the building on hold.

Reitnouer Trailers in Ontelaunee Township. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)

Prior to that, the pandemic put the site development on hold.

It’s been a long process consolidating his businesses under one roof.

He said he has been working with Deb Millman, president of the Greater Berks Development Fund, an affiliate of the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance, for more than two decades.

The development fund sold him the land in 2021 where the plant ultimately was built.

“Usually buildings of that size in the last 15-20 years have been warehouses — when you think of the projects up 61 and along 78,” Millman said. “This is, for us, such an important project for the ability for the company to find that size parcel that was zoned correctly, was in a great location, that was really a home run. … This is one of those ones where you are so concerned about a company having to leave Berks County if they can’t find the right land.”

Previously, the manufacturing had been based primarily in Cumru Township with space leased in Muhlenberg Township for a painting line.

A new paint line will not be able to be incorporated into the Ontelaunee Township facility for 12 to 18 months, Reitnouer said, so the Tuckerton location will be open until then.

In February, about two-thirds of the company’s workforce of 400 had been moved to the new plant and as of April, they were about 90% moved in.

Reitnouer Trailers in Ontelaunee Township. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)

There is a mix of old and new machinery. Reitnouer said the total investment, including equipment, land and moving expenses has been about $60 million.

Regional impact

There are machines that can cut and bend 50-foot-long pieces of aluminum. One had a $1.5 million price tag. Some lasers cost $1.4 to $1.6 million. Some pieces of equipment his company only needs about 50% of the time for its in-house production.

“Well, you can’t have a million dollar machine and have it sit there half the time,” Reitnouer said. “We went out and got outside work, so I would have state-of-the-art equipment to build my stuff and then I could help some of the local people fabricate their parts on state-of-the-art equipment.”

He said they do bumpers for Reading Body, for example.

“Great Dane [truck body manufacturer] has a trailer division, we do some component parts with them,” he added.

Reitnouer also is a big customer of Hydro Extrusions in Cressona, Schuylkill County, purchasing about 2 million pounds of extruded aluminum, he said.

PennTex Construction Co. Inc., Blue Bell, Montgomery County was the plant construction supervisor.

Ben Wawrzonek, a Brandywine Heights grad who now lives in Royersford, was onsite in April checking an area for PennTex in the parking lot where a sinkhole had opened up. He said construction has been completed at the site.

“The biggest surprise I had moving here was the amount of infrastructure this type of manufacturing facility requires,” Reitnouer said. “We obviously had that at other places, but that was done piecemeal. Here you started with a blank building and all that infrastructure had to be moved.

“There are miles and miles of piping in the ceiling for our argon Co2 for our welders and oxygen for our lasers, compressed air for our air tools,” he offered as an example.

He feels it was worth it, because it is creating a future for his family and employees.

Investing in the future

It was not an investment he and his wife, Jo, both 68, took lightly. He said he realized it was necessary to be able to grow and support the next generation.

His sons Jason, 48, and Derek, 42, and a grandson are also involved in the business.

“Our key people, say our top 10 key people, are late 30s, early 40s,” Reitnouer said. “That’s unusual. Businesses like ours that have been around 40 some years, they’re the 60s people, like me and my wife. Our core, the people who make this place go, are only in their late 30s and early 40s. My wife and I are really investing in our sons and the people that work here.”

Derek Moyer of Exeter Township is plant manager at Reitnouer Inc. in Ontelaunee Township. He is shown Friday, April 24, 2026, at the plant’s new location (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)

One of those employees is Derek Moyer, 42, who is the plant manager.

The Exeter Township resident has worked 23 years for Reitnouer.

“Best thing about working at Reitnouer, it’s a family oriented company,” he said. “I like the people I work for.”

Since Moyer started working at the new location at the beginning of the year, he said the impact of more room and better equipment has made the biggest impression on him.

“At the old place, you didn’t have enough room, so you stored something here and there, even though you needed it somewhere else,” Reitnouer explained.

The new plant allows room for expansion. Reitnouer said the goal is to eventually increase the workforce 50%, to 600 people, hopefully in the next five to 10 years.

Man in hard hat standing outside in front of a line of flatbed trailers.

Bud Reitnouer, owner of Reitnouer Inc. and Reitnouer Enterprises with some of the company’s completed flatbed trailers outside the new manufacturing plant in Ontelaunee Township, Berks County, April 24, 2026. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)