RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Fleetwood Enterprises announced Tuesday morning that it would keep day-to-day operations of its businesses going while the company shops for a buyer. Its travel trailer division though will be shuttered, affecting 667 employees nationwide including 12 at the company's Rialto service center.

A Fortune 500 company for 28 years, the company boosted Riverside's business image and made the Inland region a destination for other RV makers. Now, bruised and battered by failed attempts to expand, ballooning debt and an economy in tatters, Fleetwood's stock traded for a penny per share on Tuesday. The company hasn't made an annual profit since April 2000.

Since then there has been a flurry of management changes, while the company winnowed its losses from $284 million to $1 million by 2008 after shuttering factories and cutting costs. By then, though, Fleetwood was faced with the country's deep financial slump. Buyers couldn't get bank loans to purchase an RV and dealers couldn't get financing to order new models from manufacturers.

"What we are seeing in the RV industry at this time I don't believe any dealer or manufacturer anticipated," said Mellanie Ingle, spokeswoman for Giant RV - one of the largest RV dealerships in California with locations in Colton, Corona, Montclair, Murrieta, Westminster and Indio. "Giant RV is confident Fleetwood will emerge from the Chapter 11 filing. Fleetwood is the foundation of the RV industry."

In 1998, the company was one of the largest makers of motor homes and travel trailers, with about a 26.1 percent market share in RVs and 21.6 percent share of the travel trailer market. In 2007, it accounted for just 7.6 percent of the RV market and 5.9 percent of all travel trailers sold, according to the company's most recent annual report.

Joe Hixson, a spokesman for Fleetwood, said there are no immediate plans for more layoffs. The company is seeking bank funding to keep operating, but "we have what we believe to be sufficient cash for the immediate term," Hixson said.

"It's just a nightmare scenario for the RV industry that's not getting better," said Christian Eddleman, an analyst with Argus Research. "It's likely that the shareholders are wiped out," he said.

As for buyers for Fleetwood's RV and manufactured housing divisions, the marketplace for struggling RV-related companies doesn't include a lot of suitors. "It would have to be someone with deep pockets," Eddleman said.

Thor, Fleetwood's competitor with more cash on hand and less debt, could be a possible candidate, he said. He also pointed to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway which bought Indiana-based RV company Forest River in July 2005. Forest River bought Coachmen Industries in January.

Hixson would only say that Fleetwood is "moving with a sense of urgency with discussions with our buyers," without naming those interested, he said.

To read the complete report in The Press-Enterprise, click here.