---

Conrad Clement, CEO of Featherlite, Inc., Receives 'Entrepreneur Of The Year'

7 July 1999

Conrad Clement, CEO of Featherlite, Inc., Receives 'Entrepreneur Of The Year' Award

   President and CEO of Featherlite, Inc. Takes Top Honor in 'Leadership in
        Manufacturing' Category Among Nominees from Iowa and Nebraska

    CRESCO, Iowa, July 7 -- Conrad Clement, president and chief
executive officer of Featherlite, Inc. , has received the 1999
Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) award in the Manufacturing and Construction
category.
    The Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors and recognizes entrepreneurs
who have demonstrated excellence and extraordinary success through innovation,
financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and
community.  Now in its thirteenth year, The Entrepreneur Of The Year program
was founded and is produced by the professional services firm of Ernst & Young
LLP, and is co-sponsored nationally by the Entrepreneur Of The Year(R)
Institute, the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Inc. at the Ewing Marion
Kaufman Foundation, USA TODAY, the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group, CNN and CNNfn.
    Under Clement's leadership over the past ten and one-half years,
Featherlite's product lines have been diversified from horse and livestock
trailers to include car trailers, recreational vehicle trailers, numerous
types of specialty transporters, including race car transporters used by
professional racing teams, and top-end luxury motorcoaches.
    The strategy of product line diversification, combined with
three acquisitions, has spurred strong sales growth.  In 1989, the first year
after Clement assumed leadership responsibilities for the new company, annual
sales were $21 million.  Ten years later, in 1998, Featherlite's net sales
reached a record $190.9 million, a 42-percent increase over the prior year,
which brought the company's five-year compound annual growth rate in sales to
37 percent.  One-half of 1998 sales were contributed by product categories
added since 1991.
    "I'm very proud to accept this award on behalf of our 1,700 employees
company-wide, as well as the communities in which our facilities are located,"
Clement said.  "In this regard, I would like to offer my personal thanks to
the city of Cresco and its agencies for their support in helping Featherlite
achieve its goals.
    "I believe this award serves to recognize that Featherlite provides the
highest quality products in our industry to the markets we serve.  This alone
provides me with more satisfaction than any personal recognition I could
receive."
    As a regional award winner for Nebraska and Iowa, Clement will be in
competition for National honors to be awarded later in the year.

    About Featherlite
    Featherlite, Inc., with headquarters in Cresco, Iowa, is an innovative
leader in designing, manufacturing and marketing high quality luxury
motorcoaches and aluminum specialty trailers and specialized transporters.
With 80 percent of its business in the leisure, recreation and entertainment
categories, Featherlite has highly diversified product lines offering
400 standard model and custom-designed aluminum specialty trailers,
specialized transporters and luxury motorcoaches.  Featherlite is the
"Official Trailer" of NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), Indy Race
League (IRL), SPORTSCAR, Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), American
Speed Association (ASA), World of Outlaws (W.O.O.) and the National Hot Rod
Association (NHRA).  Through its Featherlite Vantare(TM) and Featherlite
Vogue(R) product lines, Featherlite is the "Official Luxury Motorcoach" of
NASCAR, IRL, SPORTSCAR, CART and NHRA.  For more information about the
company, please visit Featherlite's website at http://www.featherliteinc.com .

    For more information:
    Swenson NHB Investor Relations        Featherlite, Inc.
    Contact:  Doug Ewing                  Contact:  Jeffery A. Mason, CFO
    (612) 344-1036                        (319) 547-6000