Champion Homes, a leading builder of manufactured, modular and mobile homes, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the majority of the assets held by Homes Direct, the company announced on Tuesday.
Terms of the acquisition deal were not disclosed.
The purchase, which executives announced on the company’s Q4 2026 earnings call, represents 11 retail locations across Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon, accounting for the majority of Home Direct’s 15 total locations. The deal, expected to close within the next couple of quarters, will bring Champion Homes’ total number of stores nationwide to 95.
The timing of the deal makes strategic sense for Champion Homes. Last month, an investor group led by Warburg Pincus acquired ECN Capital. Champion Homes, through its subsidiary Champion Canada Holdings, controlled millions of ECN common and preferred shares, which resulted in a payout of $189.1 million CAD, or roughly $137 million USD.
“We’re putting a portion of that capital to work towards our strategic priorities by expanding our retail channel and elevating the customer experience. In support of those strategies, we announced today the acquisition of Homes Direct,” Champion Homes President and CEO Tim Larson said on the call.
The acquisition is also part of a concerted effort from Champion Homes to expand manufactured housing’s addressable market share. Manufactured housing, a cheaper alternative to site-built housing, has the potential to fill a growing affordability gap in today’s housing market.
“When [buyers] look at their monthly payment, their cash flows and when things like gas prices jump up, etc., there’s some more pressure there,” Larson said.
Why Champion Homes pursued Homes Direct
In addition to Homes Direct’s strong western presence, the company also has significant growth potential with roughly $70 million in annualized revenue across its 11 acquired stores, Larson said.
Homes Direct operates retail locations, but doesn’t build homes itself. Instead, the company acts as a retailer and broker for third-party manufacturers. For Champion Homes, the deal creates upside by allowing the company to capture both manufacturing and retail margins.
“We get the benefit of the retail margin in addition to the manufacturing margin. As we move more products that they get today from other sources to our sources, that helps the plant because you get better utilization. There’s a positive element on the margin side from those drivers,” Larson explained.
There’s also some potential synergies in terms of making the retail locations more efficient.
“Then, because we’ve added retail stores over the years, we do have some cost benefits, because we can have some common capabilities around marketing, and our overall staff levels support retail,” Larson said, explaining that the deal will facilitate further organic growth throughout the western United States.
A shared focus on the customer experience
Champion Homes has more than two dozen brands. Skyline Homes, a prominent Champion Homes subsidiary, earned recognition as the most trusted manufactured home builder by America’s Most Trusted study in 2025 for the sixth year in a row. Champion Homes brands accounted for all three top spots on the most trusted list.
For Champion Homes, focusing on the customer experience is crucial. According to Larson, Home Direct’s CEO, Ray Gritton, has a similar emphasis on customer experience, guiding buyers throughout the homebuying process.
“Homes Direct really does look at it end-to-end. When I met Ray a few years ago, we got introduced to have a few-minute conversation. It turned into an hour because we were talking about the customer experience and where that could go. It’s because they really see the opportunity to help that customer all the way from when they’re online through their living in their home, and that end-to-end. They take care in both their team’s training and the ways the homes are displayed in retail,” Larson explained.
How Champion Homes plans to integrate Homes Direct
Larson referred to Homes Direct as “a beacon of the manufactured housing industry” and stated that the Champion Homes team sees “a strong pipeline of local market demand and commercial opportunities.”
Champion Homes has a manufacturing plant in Chandler, Arizona, that already works hand in hand with a neighboring Homes Direct location. That arrangement, Larson said, provides a scalable model that leadership can apply to Home Direct’s other ten locations as they integrate the two companies.
Executives are leaning on their experience integrating the Iseman Homes acquisition that closed a year ago, as well as the Regional Homes deal from 2023. Champion Homes sees upside in gradually shifting the acquired stores toward Champion-branded products, using a strategy similar to its Iseman acquisition, where it steadily increased the share of in-house products across the retail network.
“We do business with [Homes Direct] today, and that’s been a key part of the relationship, but they still have other products that they carry, and other brands. We’re going to migrate those over time, like we have with Iseman, and obviously, we’ve had success there that you’ve seen in our results. We’re very encouraged by it,” Larson said.
