RV sector littered with roadkill

[SmokelessJoe]

reportonbusiness.com: Recreational vehicle sector littered with roadkill


Sergei

[Airslide]

Interesting read.

Thanks for sharing

Vinnie

[Mexray]

Bigfoot Industries closed it's doors today as funding was shut off by their major bank...This appears to be a permanent closing, leaving their recent customers without warranty, and their stocking dealers holding discontinued inventory...a sad situation, indeed!

All RV industries are in for a long, potholed stretch ahead!

[RoadKingMoe]

The recreational boat industry has been shrinking the past two years or so, with many going out of business. Brunswick, a large conglomerate who bought up many of them is now closing them.

[willyd]

RV dealers are also hitting the skids. Best Buy RV with 2 large facillities on Route 70 in Springfield, Ohio and Richmond Indiana are out of business,

[moosetags]

It's kind of sad reading about all the doom and gloom in the RV industry. I'm tryinh to be hopeful that things will start to rebound in the new year.

Brian

[Silvertwinkie]

That is very unfortunate for Bigfoot as it was a well built RV.

Reading the article, it seems like Thor is a bit better off than it's counterparts, however, even though Thor has a "bus" division, it's important to realize that most of the places buying the busses are dependent on taxes, and as sales slow, tax revenue does too.

The RV industry for the most part has been putting out POS like products for decades. Airstream has been not much of an exception, so as we continue to spiral downward, it will be interesting to see what actually happens both with Airstream and Thor, it's parent company. Currently THO is at $13.42/share, down significantly. Since late Sept, early Oct, the stock has shed more than half it's value. Thor is restarting it's Thor Credit arm due to the dismal credit that is out there.

My feeling is that this is going to get far worse before it gets better. I am not sure Fleetwood will survive. They are at .17/share, far less than half it's value a month ago. Winnebego, though slightly better off may also come into question as it is $4.75/share, same story as the other two....while sales across the board are near nill. Only Thor has some cash reserves from what I understand. Then again, the big 2.5 had reserves too and now they have their hands out, so I might not take great comfort in Thor having some reserves compared to Fleetwood and Winnebego, bus division or not.

As for the smaller RV builders, they may disapper a lot sooner.

[eubank]

In a sense, the RV industry was fattened for slaughter by a hyperactive loan market; the result was inevitable.

But, then, I'm no economist!


Lynn

[RoadKingMoe]

When discretionary income goes down, everyone in the "toy" industry feels it.

That especially includes manufacturers of perceived higher quality products, whose used market grows and increasingly competes with them over time. That's been especially true in the boating industry.

Niche products like Airstream also have a large base of buyers willing to overlook the flaws and rebuild or restore the much lower priced used models.

[crispyboy]

Nice post Doorgunner

We had an RV shop local to our area close last week. Not surprising as they had quite the reputation of being jerks. I tried to purchase an old used Tradewind from them. Had bad skin and needed a total rehab inside. Worth $1000 at best. They wanted $4k and acted like it was a deal. It sat for another two years before disappearing.
Myself and friend stopped by the other day to see if there were any deals on accesories etc.... and the place was in shambles. The tires were flat on the company trucks, pop up campers were left open to the elements, all camper doors were open, people were stopping by to pick up boats/trailers that were paid for and there was nobody to help them - the doors were locked tight. There was a lot of cussing going on in the parking lot by those folks.

[cammur]

Another industry summary:
RV Consumer Group - We Rate RVs on the RV Ratings Guide CD for motorhomes, fifth wheels, trailers, toy haulers. (part I)
RV Consumer Group - We Rate RVs on the RV Ratings Guide CD for motorhomes, fifth wheels, trailers, toy haulers. (part II)

[Colonial Airstream]

Originally Posted by Mexray

Bigfoot Industries closed it's doors today as funding was shut off by their major bank...This appears to be a permanent closing, leaving their recent customers without warranty, and their stocking dealers holding discontinued inventory...a sad situation, indeed!

All RV industries are in for a long, potholed stretch ahead!

Where did you hear about that? I searched RVbusiness, Google & yahoo and did not come up with anything. I also called Bigfoot and someone answered the phone.

[RoadKingMoe]

Google "bigfoot industries closes" returned:

Truck Camper Magazine | Dedicated to the Truck Camping Lifestyle

Castanet.net - Vernon News

http://truckcampernews.rvtravel.com/...g-of-past.html

[Colonial Airstream]

Found it: CHBC News - Job Losses

[rluhr]

I've been keeping track all year. Bigfoot is the ninth independent RV manufacturer to close or go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy so far in 2008. I list the other eight in this blog entry:

Man In The Maze » Blog Archive » It’s the end of the mall as we know it

Essentially, any manufacturer who is entirely dependent on bank credit is in severe danger, as the Bigfoot story demonstrates. Those with cash in the bank are much better positioned. The good news is that Airstream's parent company, Thor, reportedly has $189 million in cash and no debt, so while things are grim for many dealers and manufacturers, we can expect Airstream will weather the storm.

I expect that the smart and aggressive dealers will also be fine, and will take market share from the ones who have shut down or retrenched.

[Al - K4GLU]

Sorry to see that Bigfoot has gone belly up. When I decided to go fulltime I was between the Airstream 20' Safari/SE and Bigfoot 21' and ended up choosing the Airstream which has been a constant stream of irritating problems from the day I got it. As for Thor having 189 million bucks, from the figures that are being tossed around at the moment to bail out this, that and the other that's little more than pocket change!

[dlb435]

I'm located near New Orleans and our local RV dealers are doing OK. They all got the "Katrina Effect". This is when a lot of locals use the RV not just for fun but also as an escape pod when the storms come. Right now they are doing a good business getting the RV's in shape for a posible run to cover.
Also, our economy did not run wild in the last few years. No big UP so there is no big DOWN.