09/14/2026
We are very sad to hear the news of the upcoming closure of Rugged Liner, a business ran by the Williamson family for approximately 18 years, ending in 2016. The Williamson Foundation is a small private foundation founded by Don and Patsy Lou Williamson so that they could continue giving back to the communities that supported them long after their passing. In honor of their commitment to these communities, the foundation would like to offer three $2500.00 grants to Owosso/Corunna-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. If you know of a nonprofit in need, please have them submit a request to [email protected] detailing how the funds would be used to help the community. Grant recipients will be privately notified and announced on The Williamson Foundation page. Requests made on behalf of individuals or families cannot be considered due to IRS regulations. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those facing the upcoming layoffs.
Deadline for submitting requests is October 31, 2026.
After 30 Years, Rugged Liner Closing Owosso Plant — 90 Local Workers to Lose Their Jobs
By Tom Manke
Friends Community News Group
OWOSSO — For more than three decades, generations of Shiawassee County workers have punched a clock at the truck-accessory factory on Aiken Street. Now, Rugged Liner’s Owosso plant is preparing to close, eliminating 90 jobs and bringing another painful chapter in the community’s manufacturing history to an end.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state of Michigan lists March 19, 2027, as the expected layoff date. The notice covers 90 positions at the 951 Aiken St. operation and describes the closing as permanent. No detailed reason was provided in the publicly posted notice.
The company dates its beginning to 1995. Over the years, local residents have known the operation by several corporate and brand names, including Rugged Liner, The Colonel’s Truck Accessories, Truck Hero and, most recently, RealTruck. The corporate history is complicated because the Rugged Liner brand, its manufacturing assets and its parent companies changed hands at different times.
Early Rugged Liner operations were associated with Mark German and several related companies — Rugged Liner Inc., Triad Management Group Inc., Aerocover Inc. and Ground Force Inc. In 1998, those companies were acquired by The Colonel’s International, whose Owosso subsidiary was known as The Colonel’s Truck Accessories.
The late Owosso businessman Donald J. “Don” Williamson — sometimes locally remembered simply as Don Williams — served as chairman and chief executive officer of The Colonel’s organization. Federal corporate filings identify him as Donald Williamson and place the company’s principal offices at 951 Aiken St. SEC corporate filing.
The business later returned to operating under the Rugged Liner name, with Scott Williamson serving as president during an important period of local growth. By 2013, the company was selling Owosso-made truck bed liners, tonneau covers, wheel-well liners and other accessories in approximately 65 countries. Rugged Liner received Shiawassee County’s Exporter of the Year recognition, and Williamson credited the plant’s employees for building an international market that had been virtually nonexistent only three years earlier.
Truck Hero Inc., an Ann Arbor-based collection of automotive-accessory brands, acquired Rugged Liner in 2016. Truck Hero was later placed under the controlling ownership of an investment group led by private-equity firm L Catterton in 2021. The company eventually adopted the RealTruck name, leaving Rugged Liner as one brand within a much larger organization of more than 35 manufacturing and distribution operations. L Catterton acquisition announcement
At its height, Rugged Liner reported approximately 450,000 square feet of manufacturing and shipping space in two Owosso-area facilities and a workforce of roughly 140 people. Its molded bed liners were shipped across the United States and around the world with “Owosso, Michigan” attached to the company’s identity. That success made the factory more than an industrial building: It became a place where people raised families, built friendships and, in some cases, spent most of their working lives.
That is what makes the loss of 90 jobs especially difficult. Behind every number in the state notice is a worker now facing an uncertain future — and a family that may soon be forced to reconsider its household budget, health insurance and plans for the coming year. The extended notice provides time to seek new employment, but it cannot replace the stability, friendships and pride that come from working beside the same people for years.
Owosso has survived factory closings before, but familiarity does not make them painless. When the final shift ends at Rugged Liner, the community will lose more than a recognizable name on a factory wall. It will lose payrolls spent in local stores and restaurants, experienced manufacturing workers and a company whose products carried a small piece of Owosso to truck owners around the world.
This report reflects information available as of Sept. 9, 2026. RealTruck had not publicly provided a detailed explanation for the Owosso closing.
For context the plants that Real Truck used were at one time owned by Globe Battery Plant and on West Stewart St, Universal Electric.
