The Mobile Millionaire

Almost inevitably, the name "mobile home" conjures up visions of a trailer hitched to a car and constantly on the move. Today's mobile homes are nothing of the sort. They rate their name only because they are trucked to special parks, where they are placed on concrete platforms and usually stay in place permanently. Put together by semiskilled workers on the assembly line, the mobiles have been largely unaffected by the soaring costs of conventional construction. Within the past ten years, they have become by far the No. 1 source of low-cost housing in the U.S., accounting for at least three out of every four homes sold for less than $15,000. Sales reached 300,000 units worth $2 billion last year, and they are likely to top $3 billion in 1969.

Behind the Store. Why the rapid growth? One major reason, says Arthur Decio, 38, founder, chairman and president of Skyline Corp., of Elkhart, Ind., is that "some years ago, builders just decided to forget about low-income groups. This was our opportunity, and we are trying to make the most of it." Last year Decio's Skyline sold about 30,000 mobile homes and 12,000 travel trailers, more than any other U.S. firm. For the company's fiscal year, which ended May 31, it earned almost $9,000,000 on sales of $180 million, a jump of 67% in sales and 98% in earnings over the previous year. The company's stock has quintupled in price since the beginning of 1968, and Decio has recently announced a 3-for-l split.

Decio himself is worth at least $70 million.* The son of an Italian immigrant grocer, he grew up in Elkhart next to the railroad tracks. When he was 21, he went to work in the garage behind the grocery store, where his father built mobile homes in his spare time. Later, Decio invested his savings of $3,200, talked friends into putting up $7,000, and began to introduce some method into what was then a helter-skelter industry. Borrowing some ideas from auto manufacturers, he offered many different models and sold them through competing dealers. From the garage in Elkhart, Skyline Corp. has spread to a network of 27 plants. This month Skyline will shift its headquarters to Phoenix, where executive talent is more plentiful, but its main manufacturing plants will stay in Elkhart. That city of 40,000 is the capital of the mobile industry, largely because so many of its residents are hard-working Amish carpenters who shun such secular organizations as labor unions.

On the Go. Living in a mobile home can be surprisingly comfortable. Rooms are airy, and only the corridors are cramped. Skyline homes come furnished with chairs, couches, beds, carpeting, and even pictures on the plywood interior walls. A 60-ft. by 12-ft. model, which usually includes a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and bath, can cost as little as $4,000, though most are somewhat more. Two units, bolted together on the site to make a 60-ft. by 24-ft., three-bedroom home, usually go for $10,000 to $15,000. Sales are principally to retired people, bachelors and newlyweds.

Volume is a major reason for the low cost of mobile homes, which constitute the only truly industrialized housing available on a large scale in the U.S. today. Skyline's nonunionized workers commonly earn up to $12,000 a year because base pay is increased by an incentive system that keeps the men on the run along the production lines.

Next to inefficient workers, Decio abhors waste. He believes that its most flagrant form is the payment of interest on borrowed money. Thus, Skyline's expansion has all come out of profits; it has no outstanding debt at all. Because of the tremendous need for low-cost housing, Decio can name his own terms. When his dealers order mobile homes, for example, they must pay in advance --an unusual practice in any industry where each unit for sale represents a large investment of cash.

* Decio was one of six men featured in TIME'S cover story on young millionaires, Dec. 3, 1965. Since then, his wealth has risen from $5,000,000.

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