By Scott Miller
SCBIZ Daily Staff 

SUMMERVILLE -- American LaFrance announced a deal Wednesday to expand its vocational truck business in Summerville, replacing a portion of the firetruck production it lost last month. 

The company is planning a joint venture with Navistar Inc. of Warrenville, Ill., to build vocational trucks for domestic and global markets. 

Initially, the Summerville plant will manufacture garbage trucks and construction vehicles with the new partnership, but production is expected to be expanded into more vocational markets in the future. 

“We believe the strengths of our vocational line are exponentially enhanced when combined with the proprietary components, engines and distribution of Navistar,” said Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners, the parent company of American LaFrance. 

Patriarch recently announced plans to move American LaFrance’s firetruck production from Summerville to existing facilities in Pennsylvania and New York. The move resulted in 35 layoffs and vacant space at the plant. 

Details on how many vehicles would be produced or jobs would be created from the venture were not available, said Richard Ball, director of marketing and dealer operations for American LaFrance.

The joint venture “would not replace all of it, but it would be one of the components in increasing the throughput at this facility,” he said.

Navistar is an international company that produces diesel engines and commercial trucks and buses as well as military vehicles.

Patriarch also remains the top bidder for the bankrupt Protected Vehicles Inc. in North Charleston. PVI will auction its assets Aug. 21 in downtown Charleston. The result of the auction will be subject to court approval. Patriarch submitted a benchmark bid of $5 million.