Hard times for the S&S industry

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Well, It looks like bad times have caught up with some Class A mfg. companys..

National, Travel supreme, Western RV, out of business.....

And now,

Junction City, Ore.-based Country Coach Inc. is implementing a 5% wage cut for all employees while President and CEO Jay Howard will take a 25% cut, according to a report by KVAL TV, Eugene.

Country Coach, which builds high-end Class A motorhomes, in March laid off around 100 line workers in response to the market. The TV station reported that the company employs around 1,100 people.

Motorhome sales have slacked off during the past couple of years, but recent economic conditions coupled with soaring gas prices have heightened softness in the sector.

Statistical Surveys Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., recently reported that February motorhome sales were down 24% from a year ago and that Class A registrations declined 25%. Within the Class A market, diesel registrations fell 21% while gas sales retreated 29%


Winnebago to Temporarily Shut Down Plants
RV Business
Friday, April 18, 2008

Winnebago Industries Inc.'s plants will shut down next week, a spokesperson for the Forest City, Iowa-based motorhome manufacturer confirmed Friday (April 18).

The Forest City Summit reported that the shutdown will impact all three plants in Forest City, Hampton and Charles City, although one line will remain open in Charles City, Kelli Harms said.

"We have to make adjustments on what the market is telling us," she said. "The RV market is slow right now."

Harms said the company makes productions adjustments daily, but fuel prices and other factors are currently hurting sales.

"Interest rates have come down but we haven't seen that translating," she said.

The shutdown comes about a month after Winnebago announced it laid off 200 employees. Harms said no other layoffs have taken place since.

Around 3,000 people work at the three plants. Employee benefits will continue next week, but workers won't be paid. Harms said employees can choose to collect unemployment for the week.

Western RV shuts doors, lays off hundreds

By Chuck Woodbury | April 17, 2008 - 9:00 am


RV maker Western Recreational Vehicles Inc. of Yakima, Wash., has closed after a failed merger attempt and a slumping market. All together, 220 employees are now out of work.

According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, shipments of new RVs are expected to decline nearly 25 percent in 2007-08.

"During this short break in manufacturing, Western RV will review our alternatives and determine the best course of action going forward, company president Bob Wert told the Seattle Times. "Once a plan has been developed or a suitable buyer for the business is identified, we intend to resume normal manufacturing operations."

Western RV is owned by Monomoy Capital Partners of New York. It manufacturers high-end motorhomes, fifth-wheel trailers and campers. The 37-year-old company founded by Bill and Suzanne Doyle. Its plant is south of Yakima in central Washington



It's a shame for all the employees involved!
Nick-

[Stan]

NicK: Don't forget to shed a tear and say a prayer for those poor hedge fund people in New York.

[skipn]

Nick,

    I'm afraid we are all in for a bumpy road....
   
      (Was at 10 or so lines reread it and was to depressed to post)

    Hope you all are doing well today

      Skip

[HighTechRedneck]

There are many RV dealers around the Chattanooga/North Georgia area.  All their lots are packed full of RV's, including many Class A's.  They were preparing for the Baby Boomer retirement surge that was expected.  Then the fuel prices, decline in home prices and mortgage problems short circuited the economy and many people's retirement plans.  I expect to see many RV dealers go out of business and many thousands of new RV's at "going out of business" prices to glut the market.

[JohnEd]

HTR,

Firstly....SEMPER FI

Nothing like "Home Town News".  I live in Eugene, Orygun.   We are the home of Country Coach and, like you guys, are feeling the pinch.   Monaco is also located here and Safari was.  A lot of our families have been hurt deeply by this economy.   AND we have lost our "fair share" to casualties in the ranks of our hometown Guard soldiers, like many others.    Thank God the Iraq's are running a surplus in "oil revenue" with blue skies forcast for them in future oil profits.   The other good news is that the Surge is working.

Sorry!  I just get so sick of it all and my heart simply aches.

John

[Highway Yacht]

I was just watching "Business Nation" on TV a couple weeks ago and they interviewed the CEO of Winnebago and he was talking about how hard they were hit with the bad economy. That was before their announced shutdown. They also talked with a guy that runs a Repo Yard for RV's and he said his business was UP by 60% from this time last year. He stated that his company picks up approx 45 to 50 RV's a week right now. That seems like a huge number to me. You know all those repo'd units will fall back into the market thus hurting the industry even more. I guess it might help the few people out there wanting to BUY a unit tho.

[David Anderson]

Don't worry, the Federal Reserve is going to print our way out of these economic problems.  However, all my retirement accounts are going to purchase about 1/3 of what I thought they would.  I may have to move into the bus full time, but in a parked spot, no less.

Political rant,  sorry.

David

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Another...

Alfa See Ya....

Alfa Leisure shuts its doors, entire staff laid off

CHINO, Calif. -- Alfa Leisure laid off its entire workforce today and shut its doors, one of the manufacturer's California dealerships confirmed this evening.

Owned by Johnnie Crean, son of Fleetwood founder John Crean, Alfa Leisure had a reputation for exceptional quality and workmanship. But the declining market for motorhomes made it nearly impossible for the company to compete, said those who were aware of the situation. It is not know how many people were impacted by the plant's closure.

Alfa Leisure has not yet filed bankruptcy and may be waiting for a potential buyer to emerge, one dealer suggested.

Attempts to reach Alfa Leisure's offices during working hours were unsuccessful and the company's voice mail system had been turned off.

Rumors began circulating late last week that closure was imminent. One source suggested the company hadn't received an order for a single coach in more than three weeks. Another source suggested the company owed several warranty shops tens of thousands of dollars and were out 120 days on accounts payable. The warranty shops had, apparently, stopped doing business directly with Alfa, requiring consumers to pay for the repairs and seek reimbursement directly from the company

[cody]

Rumor has it that we might be heading onto a resession, sadly at my income level it's hard to tell, I've been recessing for a long time now, if this keeps up I may have to raise my labor rate for sawdust from one cup of coffee to two cups.  It's sad tho, this is affecting so many people, libby and I can get by ok but I see so many that are deeply in debt sliding further with no relief in sight.  People argue that debt is the consumers own fault and to a degree it is, but I still feel for the ones that it's crippling.  I support our government but I affraid  the bill run up by the war in Iraq will affect us for generations and I'm not sure the rewards are there, that coupled with the greed from the comodities speculators has pretty much hurt us all.

[cody]

Wow, some great typos in my last post, I gotta learn to speel gooder.

[TexasBorderDude]

Wow, some great typos in my last post, I gotta learn to speel gooder.

Hell then you'd loose all credibility with me!

dg

[Sojourner]

I just learn the reason for hard time make end meet end was this very informative video called "The Inside Story of Oil Companies and Plentiful Oil" that I just posted, we are the slaves to the crude oil middle man which is IMF (International Monetary Fund).

Look for the subject of "In between oilman are raking the highest profit" post.

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry