Fleetwood Flops

Shares of Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises plunged again Tuesday, falling $3.19 to $23.75--the lowest since 1996.

The company on April 20 warned that earnings in the quarter that ended Sunday would be 20% below estimates.

The problem isn’t in the company’s well-known recreational-vehicle business: Fleetwood has a record backlog of motor home orders, it says. Rather, the company is incurring heavy costs from a new push into direct retailing of its manufactured housing. It has opened or acquired 165 sales centers just in the last year.

Fleetwood insists the retail business will be “solidly in the black” this spring.