Soaring fuel prices have driven some Central Oregonians to carpool, siphoned profits from trucking and construction companies and jacked up the cost of airline tickets, but business at Beaver Motor Coach of Bend shows no signs of slowing.

Beaver Motor Coach, with 600 employees, has seen sales hold steady since fuel prices spiked this spring, said Steve Bettis, director of eastern Oregon manufacturing operations for the company.

”From a production point of view (increased fuel prices) haven’t been affecting us,” he said. ”Our products are high end. The people who can afford them can afford diesel.”

The motor coaches, which are made in Bend, cost between $200,000 and $555,000, and their owners drive about 8,000 miles per year, Bettis said. The vehicles’ tanks hold 100 to 150 gallons of fuel and get six miles per gallon.

The company is the eighth-largest employer in Central Oregon, according to Economic Development for Central Oregon. It does not have any immediate plans to expand or add staff.

But the industry’s future is bright.

Monaco Coach (NYSE:MNC), which bought Beaver in 2001, is ”increasing (staff) … and doing well overall,” Bettis said.

”(Beaver Motor Coach) is comfortable with our backlog of orders,” he said. ”We are going to stay where we’re at. We are working on our efficiencies and quality.”

Wholesale shipments of recreation vehicles from factories to dealers are expected to reach record levels in 2004, according to Ken Sommer, spokesman for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA).

Wholesale deliveries and sales from January through April this year were about 20 percent higher than the same period last year, he said. The recreational vehicle industry earned record revenues of more than $12 billion in 2003, according to RVIA.

”There was always the prediction that fuel prices would be at record levels this summer, and despite it, we’re riding high,” Sommer said. ”Owners tell us they will keep traveling despite the fuel prices and plan on taking more mini-vacations this summer. When fuel prices increase, they still take vacations of shorter distances.”

When Beaver is ready to expand, however, company founders Jim Hogue and Frank Storch are poised to accommodate it. Hogue and Storch, landlords of the current plant off Murray Road, received city approval for a plan to build a 35,000-square-foot manufacturing facility adjacent to the existing plant.

Bettis said that although the two parties have not made any agreement, the proposed building could give Beaver more space and assist a potential increase in production.

The company now produces nine motor coaches weekly. To increase that number to 11, the company would have to hire more workers and add production space, Bettis said.

”If we go to 10 (coaches per week), we would try not to hire too many because we would rather increase the (employee) bonus program based on labor efficiencies,” Bettis said.

Cathy Carroll can be reached at 541-383-0304 or at ccarroll@bendbulletin.com.