Looks Like Fleetwood is the next RV Mfg. to stop Production

[Old4103]

Although the press release states that Fleetwood will continue to manufacture motor homes and manufactured housing, it is looking for buyers for those branches.

Travel Trailer production will be stopped immediately according to our local television news station.

http://fleetwood.investorroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=405

[CAROLINABOY]

thats sad

[bobofthenorth]

No its not sad.  What is sad is that we are hamstrung with governments that think they can suspend the law of gravity and keep things up that long since should have fallen crashing to the ground.  The most recent SEC quarterly filing that Fleetwood made was effective Oct 26.  Even back then they had very little working capital.  If you discounted the inventory and (likely) bad receivables that they were holding they probably had no working capital at that time.  Thor Industries, by contrast had an extremely strong balance sheet at the time.  So now explain to me why the taxpayers should prop up the company that had mismanaged itself into a hole by last fall and is just now admitting to the public that they are bankrupt.

What is sad is that we will continue to pretend that every business can survive when clearly they can't.  Businesses have come and gone in the past.  They will continue to do so in the future, despite gummit's best worst efforts to the contrary.  To bring this back to busses, if failure could really happen then there would be some fire sale pricing for RV components and we could all benefit from that. 

[jackhartjr]

Bob, what is the deal with Thor?  Are they simply better managed?
Jack

[bobofthenorth]

I have no idea.  Based on the Thor product that we looked at over the years it certainly wasn't because they built such great stuff.  Companies come and go as long as the market is allowed to work.  It looks to me as though Fleetwood needs to go and Thor might stay.  But that could change - I wouldn't buy either one of them right now.

[Sean]

This has been a long time coming.  Fleetwood has not been profitable since 2000:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_fleetwood11.40a864f.html

Fleetwood joins a long list of failed RV manufacturers, likely to grow longer before the market hits bottom:
http://www.rvtravel.com/rvforum/viewtopic.php?t=5670

The industry is projecting a great deal of gloom.  However, the good news for most of us is that the crash of the new RV market may, in fact, have the effect of propping up, somewhat, the used market, which would include our buses:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north694.html

No its not sad.  ...

What is sad is that we will continue to pretend that every business can survive when clearly they can't.  Businesses have come and gone in the past. ...

Well said, Bob.  And that's from a liberal left-wing wacko.

But you can't really blame bail-out mania just on the government.  Remember, the government here reflects (more or less) the will of the people.  It is political suicide for any politician with constituents in real trouble to even appear that he or she is not in favor of bringing "relief" to those constituents.  IOTW, we get the government we deserve.  While you and I might recognize just how stupid it is to prop up failing businesses that, by "natural selection," should not exist, I think we are a long way from the "average American" truly believing that.  JMO, of course.

To bring this back to busses, if failure could really happen then there would be some fire sale pricing for RV components and we could all benefit from that. 

That's virtually a certainty.  I expect the RV surplus business to be booming, along with the retrofit/remodel/repair businesses.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[luvrbus]

Jack, Thor just doesn't do the RV thing they do buses and other manufacturing under different names it is good managed company ran by 68 year old Wade Thomson   Good luck

[niles500]

It really is a shame, in the early 80's we were a very large customer with Fleetwood - Our VIP checks were well into six figures - Fleetwood was nearly a billion $ company with no debt and up to 400 million in cash - When Crean lost (or relinquished) control of the company to a group who shall be nameless, the business model that had propelled them to that level was dropped, and instead of working with the select long time dealer network they had nurtured (a lot of them mom and pop's), they thought they could/should operate their own retail network - We dropped them then and soon all their good dealers did too - They never realized that the manufacturing and distributing end of the business, which they knew very well, was not the same as marketing, finance, delivery, service, etc. on the dealer level - They burned so many bridges that even though they tried to reign it back in it was too little too late - In their day they were one piece of well oiled machinery run by a very conservative CEO and BOD - FWIW

[gus]

Poor management usually does pretty well in a boom but fails during less prosperous times. The good times and high sales mask problems. These guys have sat on their butts and drawn gross salaries while not knowing what they were doing.

One of the worst problems is that so many top managers have no plans for surviving during slow economic times. That includes our past Sec of Treasury and our present Fed Reserve Head. These guys don't have a clue.

What we all need to keep in mind is the bunch of Bush cowboys who got us into this mess. They have all returned to their millionaire lives completely untouched by all the misery of the rest of the country. I seriously doubt if any of them are losing sleep over the wreckage they left behind.

I have no sympathy for any RV manufacturers, they certainly are not essential to the current economy. Food and shelter for the unemployed are now considerably more important.

The most disgusting thing is the BS put out by AIG yesterday that the whole world economy will collapse if they don't get more bailout money!! I think I recognize blackmail when I see it.

Some companies are going to go broke, there is no way around it. We can't bail out all of them.

I still say, give the money to the poor and unemployed, they will spend it. Give it to big business and it is most likely it won't get back into circulation.

One might say I'm PO'ed at the idiots who got us into this mess!!

[David Anderson]

The most disgusting thing is the BS put out by AIG yesterday that the whole world economy will collapse if they don't get more bailout money!! I think I recognize blackmail when I see it.

Some companies are going to go broke, there is no way around it. We can't bail out all of them.

I found out Sunday from a banker friend of mine that AIG insures parts of the Congressional pension investment funds.  If any company will get relief, AIG will get anything it wants.

David