PRESS RELEASES

Colibert Enterprises is now a member of RVAA
April, 2007

Colibert Enterprises is proud to announce our membership in The Recreational Vehicle Aftermarket Association. RVAA was formed in 1969 to act as the voice of the Recreational Vehicle industry's aftermarket segment and is currently the only national association dedicated specifically to the interests of the RV industry's aftermarket suppliers, distributors and manufacturer's agents. Formerly known as WDA (The Warehouse Distributors Association), the association changed its named to RVAA in 2001 to more accurately reflect the scope of the association's mission.

The association's mission statement tells the story: "We are dedicated to the growth and efficiency of the RV aftermarket by establishing and promoting programs and industry partnerships to enhance the RV lifestyle."

“Competitive Edge” show to feature Colibert Enterprises
--Innovative Towing Solutions--

April 11, 2007, Deerfield Beach, FL –New Line Media is pleased to announce that Colibert Enterprises will be featured on its innovative, educational television series, Competitive Edge. The company will be featured in a segment on “Taking it on the Road”.

Until recently, relinquishing the bed of a truck to a bulky hitch was a necessary evil when towing a 5th wheel camper. One family-owned and operated company out of Utah decided to take on the challenge of creating a revolutionary new 5th wheel hitch designed to be removed completely and easily. For over thirty years, Colibert Enterprises has enjoyed a stellar reputation for its innovative towing solutions. They further solidify that reputation with its Free Ride 5th Wheel Hitch.

The Free Ride features a low-profile hitch with the hardware installed underneath a truck bed, leaving no mounting rails or other protruding hardware once the hitch is removed. Once released from the trailer, the mounting system releases easily, leaving the bed clean and ready to use. Although lightweight, Colibert’s Free Ride hitch is rated at up to 18,000 lb. towing capacity, and will accommodate any 5th wheel on the market. Furthermore, the hitch comes with Colibert’s five-year limited warranty.

From its humble beginnings as a one-man custom fabrication shop, Colibert Enterprises has grown into a nationally recognized force, revolutionizing the towing industry with its line of innovative towing products.

 

"All The Right Connections"
Bob Ashley, RV Business, April 30, 2007

Jan Colibert, president of hitch manufacturer Colibert Enterprises Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, recalls when the company consisted of her husband, Floyd, who installed and customized hitches in a small shop, and herself as the receptionist and bookkeeper.

"It's a far cry from that today," she said of the company that today -- absent Floyd Colibert, who died in a 2001 motorcycle accident -- employs 11 workers in a 20,000-square-foot factory. Her daughter, Jacque Colibert Clark, is general manager and son, Greg Colibert, is vice president in charge of production and R&D.

Sales for 2006 were a little more than $2 million.

Floyd and Jan Colibert started out in 1976 with an installation facility. "He had worked as a metal worker in hitch-installation shops," Jan Colibert said. "We started in a little hole-in-the-wall doing sales and hitch- and wiring installations. Most of it was custom work."

By 1997, Floyd Colibert had designed an under-bed gooseneck hitch system that could be removed from the bed when a pickup truck wasn't being used for towing. With it, he decided to change the company's focus and become a manufacturer and distributor of his own products.

"My husband was the ultimate inventor," Jan Colibert said. "He was a genius. Unfortunately, he had new ideas for patents that he didn't even tell me about."

The primary change in the hitch industry since the company was founded is that almost everything today is standardized. "When we started out as a manufacturer," she said, "it was pretty much custom work for each unit. Now, there's a fit for everything. You just pull it off the shelf, including the wiring harnesses, and put it on the vehicle. It's so much easier than it was 30 years ago."

A major reason for the company's success, she contends, is that her husband started on the custom-installation side of the business. "He always looked at creating a product from the installer's point of view," Colibert said. "What was the best, safest and easiest way to install a hitch. He thought about things from the ground, up, instead of the bumper, back."

The reason the company was founded -- to make hitch receivers for trucks -- has pretty much disappeared. "That industry has really gone away due to the fact that most of the major manufacturers now install hitch receivers standard on their trucks and SUVs," Jan Colibert said.

Today, Colibert Enterprises produces a full line of Class III and Class IV hitch receivers, including the Free Ride fifth-wheel hitch, Good 2 Go goose-neck system and Rail Rider fifth-wheel hitch for shortbed pickup trucks. A key feature of all three is that they all can be easily removed so that the truck bed is flat when the vehicle is not being used for towing.

Colibert Enterprise's factory is equipped with a computerized plasma table and six custom presses designed by Floyd Colibert that cut and form the metal used to build Colibert hitches.

Last year, Colibert Enterprises licensed to Blue Ox a patented weight-distribution hitch that Colibert developed. "One of the contributing factors was that that was a new patent and we were just starting to try to market the product ourselves," Colibert said. "A bigger company with better name recognition could do a better job marketing than we could."

Colibert Enterprises hitches are sold at RV dealerships and Camping World stores, and marketed via industry trade shows and through almost all of the major RV industry distributors. Retail prices range from $500 to $800.