INDUSTRY NEWS
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RVDA Education Foundation to Acquire RV Technician Magazine D&S Media Enterprises, Inc. (D&S), and the RVDA Education Foundation (RVDA-EF) are in the final stages of transferring ownership of The Professional RV Technician magazine to the RVDA-EF. Discussions have been taking place for the past several months, according to Dan Holt, president of D&S. D&S also publishes RV News magazine. At its board of directors meeting in June, RVDA-EF authorized the purchase of RV Technician magazine. The magazine will be part of a major communications effort by RVDA to provide technicians with information that will help improve job performance whether they work at an RV dealership, RV service center, or any other business that services RV products. In addition to RV Technician magazine, RV technicians and other service personnel will receive service bulletin faxes, a new RV Service Plus newsletter, and be able to access technical information on a special Web site. RVDA-EF president Jerry Greer said, "The RVDA Education Foundation's groundbreaking communication effort will give RV service technicians, service managers, and technical support people timely information that will help keep them on top of the rapidly changing service requirements for all types of RV products." The new RVDA communications effort was launched in June with the distribution of the first RV Service Plus newsletter, RV Technician magazine was founded by D&S Media Enterprises, Inc., Tempe, AZ, in 1994, which will publish an edition of the magazine in the summer of 1999. The Foundation is expected to publish its first issue of RV Technician in the fall of 1999. Terms of the acquisition were not made public. RVIA Economist Forecasts Nearly 5% Gain in 1999 RV Shipments According to RVIA economist John DeWolf, RV shipments are expected to be between 306,000 and 307,000 in 1999. Writing in RVIA's roadsigns, Dewolf said, "This will result in a gain of about 4.7% for the year over 1998. Growth should continue through the year 2000, when total units shipped should top 312,000, for a further annual gain of 2%." He expects both towables and motorhomes will see more shipments in 1999 than in 1998 - towables by 3.4% more; motorhomes by 8.3% more. However, this is only because conventional travel trailers and Class A motorhomes will be up substantially. He also wrote, "Truck campers will also be up, but their number is small. Both also should do better in 2000, though the gains will be smaller - under 3% for both towables and motorhomes." Norcold Recognized for Safety Record RV refrigerator maker Norcold was recently named its area's safest company of 1998 at the Sidney-Shelby County (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce Safety Council's annual "Safety Awards Banquet." The designation is based on Norcold being the lone company to receive all four Safety Council Awards. Rita Rethman, who oversees the Chamber's Safety Council Awards, said, "We're very proud of Norcold. Some companies manage to win three awards, but it's quite rare for one company to receive all four." The awards are:
Norcold president Ron Riethman said that Norcold's success goes even beyond the honor and that an emphasis on safety is the way the company does business. "We've accumulated over one million man-hours since our last lost-time injury in March of 1997," he said. "This is due to Norcold's guiding principle of having all employees committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment." Two Industry Women Included in Working Woman Magazine's Top 500 Joanne Kindlund, co-founder of Holiday RV Superstores, Inc., and Marlene Wheeler, owner of Wheeler's Las Vegas RV were among a group of women recognized in the June issue of Working Woman magazine as being among the nation's top 500 women business owners. This annual roster lists a group of impressive women who own and actively participate in running their own businesses. Joanne Kindlund co-founded Holiday RV Superstores with her husband Newt 20 years ago, and the business eventually became the first publicly owned RV dealership. The Top 500 list placed Joanne 164th of all public and private women-owned enterprises in America today. Holiday RV Superstores is ranked 24 among public corporations listed, up three spots from last year. Wheeler's Las Vegas RV in its ranking of the nation's top 500 woman-owned businesses ranked 346th with revenues exceeding $30 million in 1998. Wheeler traces the roots of her dealership to a one-acre dirt lot near downtown Las Vegas when she and her husband Andy Wheeler started selling used recreational vehicles in 1982. In 1992, they built a new facility that included sales of both used and new RVs. Working Woman is a nationally distributed monthly magazine that focuses on topics about and for women in the workplace. RVIA Abandons Plan to Lobby to Lift At it's March board of directors meeting, RVIA announced that it would be hiring a lobbyist for the purpose of trying to lift the 400 sq. ft. restrictions on travel trailers and fifth-wheels. Then at its June board meeting in Washington D.C., RVIA accepted the recommendation of the Public And Legislative Affairs Committee that the board reverse its decision to seek exemption of fifth wheels and travel trailers from compliance with the 400 sq. ft. limitation in the federal manufactured housing standards. The Recreation Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA) had voiced strong opposition to the change. Fran Tarkenton Named Keynote Speaker for PRVCA's Annual Red Carpet Breakfast The Pennsylvania RV & Camping Association (PRVCA) Annual Meeting "Red Carpet Breakfast" will feature football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton as its Keynote Speaker, Throughout his career, Tarkenton has blended his drive for competition with his widely-recognized leadership skills and ability to swiftly respond to changing environments. Tarkenton likes to speak about the quickly changing environment in which we live and help us better understand what that change means to our organization, and how one must take the disappointment of failure and make it an engine to drive greater success. The Breakfast will be held at the Harrisburg Marriott on Wednesday, September 8, 1999 at 7:30 a.m. Tarkenton will sign twelve footballs to be auctioned off to benefit the PRVCA Pac Fund. Admission is by Show Badge, advance registration requested. NRVPI Graduates 10 Students
Executive Services Group (ESG) recently completed a session of the National RV Park Institute (NRVPI). Ten (10) students from California, Nevada, and Colorado attended the 5-day Institute conducted at Far Horizons 49er Village, in Plymouth, CA. The students were a mix of park owners/operators, managers, people who would like to work at a park and "wanna-bees" who are seriously investigating buying a park/campground. The Institute offers a highly intensive training course dealing specifically with the private (commercial) RV park and campground industry. It is always conducted at an operating RV park providing a hands-on learning experience. "Students not only study and learn together, but they eat three meals a day together allowing for a constant learning experience," according to spokespersons Tug & Judy Miller, directors of the Institute. Monaco Announces a 3 for 2 Stock Split The Monaco Coach Corp. (NYSE:MNC) board has approved a 3-for-2 split of its common stock. The RV maker said the stock split will increase the number of shares outstanding from about 12.7 million to about 19.1 million. Kay Toolson, Monaco's chairman and chief executive officer, said the board authorized the stock split in order to obtain a wider distribution for the common stock and improve the marketability of the shares. |
Go RVing Phase I TV Commercials Cannot be Used After December 1999 Go RVing's three Phase I TV commercials will be officially and permanently retired on December 31, 1999. The use of such creative by all industry participants will thereby cease on this date. According to RVIA, this action also relinquishes the industries rights to the talent appearing in these commercials and prohibits any future use of these spots without renegotiating usage and holding fees. Further, it was determined that future use of the commercials would not be realistic because of outdated talent and vehicle usage. Dometic Intros New Protection Plus Warranty As part of Dometic's total quality program, the company has introduced the three-year Protection Plus warranty on Dometic refrigerators and microwaves, Duo-Therm air conditioners and heat pumps and A&E patio awnings. As an extension to the three-year coverage, the company is also offering the purchase of three additional years of coverage on refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps for a total of six years of warranty coverage. Protection Plus includes two-year coverage on labor and three-year coverage on parts and freight for all Dometic refrigerators, Duo-Therm air conditioners and heat pumps and A&E patio awnings. Keystone RV Introduces Alumi-Guard™ For Sprinter Sprinter travel trailers and fifth wheels for the 2000 model year will be the first products by Keystone RV to offer Alumi-Guard™, an all-new construction technique. Alumi-Guard™ was designed by Keystone engineers for exclusive use in the company's Sprinter line of RV products. Until now, Keystone's Sprinters have been constructed with all-wood framing, commonly found in all mid- and low- priced towable products. With Alumi-Guard™ construction, square aluminum tubing replaces wood in all the critical areas of the sidewall. Aluminum will replace wood studs at all four corners of every Sprinter and around all doors, windows and storage compartments. "The substitution of aluminum will extend the life of the trailer by protecting these critical areas from the damaging effects of moisture that are common to all wood-framed RV products," according to Bill Fenech, vice president of Sprinter sales. Workhorse Celebrates New Plant Opening With Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
In June Workhorse Custom Chassis (WCC), the 209,000 square-foot chassis plant that went up in about eight weeks, celebrated its achievement with a day of dignitaries, hoopla and tours. National, state and local officials gathered at the plant in Union City, IN, to give speeches and see the "largest strip-chassis manufacturing facility in the world." Workhorse chairman and CEO Andrew Taitz rode with Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon on a specially made chassis through a wide yellow ribbon to mark the official opening of the plant. "It's been a massive task to pick up a plant and move it from Detroit to Indiana," Taitz said. "We closed the transaction on the eighth of January and we produced our first chassis on the 22nd of February. All the credit goes to the people who participated in making this possible." Governor O'Bannon lauded the efforts of the city and county officials who worked with the state of Indiana in providing an economic incentive package to locate the plant in Union City. ARVC Moves To New Building The headquarters of the 3,500-member National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC) recently moved into a newly purchased building in Falls Church, VA, ARVC president David Gorin said "ARVC is a dynamic association, and this new building is a result of growth in both membership and programs. We have plans for a portion of the building to become an education center where our members can further their knowledge of the outdoor hospitality industry. Our members are dedicated to providing campers with the best possible RV park and campground experience, and this new building will help the association facilitate the continuing education that makes that possible." ARVC's new address and phone numbers are: ARVC Kit Names New President Kit Manufacturing Co.(ASE:KIT), a manufacturer of RVs and manufactured housing, named Harold Breach to the position of president and general manager of the company. Breach has been with Kit since 1995 as general manager of the Manufactured Housing Division. RVDA Board Of Directors Amends Model Dealer Agreement The RVDA board of directors approved the first revisions to the association's Model Dealer Agreement since 1992 at its meeting in the Washington D.C. area in June. The model agreement contains suggested language that dealers and manufacturers can use in their own agreements to foster healthy business relationships and better serve RV customers. The amended model agreement contains several changes to reflect the needs of dealers and manufacturers as the RV industry moves to improve customer satisfaction in the next century. One of these revisions is the inclusion of the RV Industry Mediation/Arbitration Program. The model agreement suggests that dealers and manufacturers agree to use the RV Industry Mediation/Arbitration program to resolve disputes arising from a written dealer agreement. Other important revisions include the warranty parts policy that recommends equitable reimbursement, including a handling charge. The agreement also modifies the section on warranty approval, suggesting that a dealer be permitted to undertake warranty repairs requiring labor of less than three hours without prior manufacturer's approval, streamlining the repair process for customers. The revised Model Dealer Agreement also modifies the provision addressing repurchase should the dealer agreement be terminated by the manufacturer. This section recommends that dealers be able to request that the manufacturer repurchase RVs and parts at 100% net cost. RVDA is sending the amended Model Dealer Agreement and a companion checklist to dealer members, RV manufacturers, and state and local RV associations to help the entire industry develop mutually beneficial dealer-manufacturer sales agreements. The dealer agreement and checklist are also available on RVDA's Web site at www.rvda.org. Fleetwood Reports Fourth Quarter and Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FLE), announced earnings for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 25, 1999. Net income for the fourth quarter was $24.5 million or 66 cents per diluted share compared to $28.3 million and 81 cents per share a year ago. Fleetwood attributed the earnings and EPS decline to an operating loss from its new and rapidly expanding manufactured housing retail business and a higher number of shares outstanding as a result of retailer acquisitions made during the last year. In addition, a higher effective tax rate in the current quarter reduced earnings by about four cents per share. These factors more than offset improved margins and profits from its core manufacturing businesses. Earnings for the year were $107.1 million or $2.94 per diluted share compared to $108.5 million and $3.01 per share last year. Last year's earnings included a non-recurring insurance gain of $10.4 million or 28 cents per share attributable to a change in estimate of products liability insurance reserves. Without this gain, fiscal 1998 earnings would have been $98.1 million or $2.73 per share. RV sales increased 10% in the fourth quarter to a record $499.9 million. Motorhome revenues rose 16% to $313.6 million, an all-time high for the April quarter, as unit volume rose 11% to 4,451 units. The company also posted record travel trailer sales of $157.0 million, 2% ahead of last year's final quarter, on a 2% rise in unit volume to 10,951. Folding trailer sales of $29.3 million were off 6% from last year's record pace as unit shipments fell 10% to 5,192. RV revenues reached an all-time high in fiscal 1999, rising 14% to $1.73 billion, as all three RV divisions posted record sales. Motor home sales in fiscal 1999 surpassed the billion dollar mark for the first time, increasing 18% to $1.06 billion. Within the towable RV segments, travel trailer sales rose nine percent to $548.9 million and folding trailer sales increased 5% to $115.7 million. |
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