During the first year Prinz concentrated on specialized vehicles because he recognized that the motorhome product that he had inherited was behind the market and out of style. Prinz said, "We didn't have the wherewithal to spend the amount of money needed to bring it up to date immediately. We kept enough product going out in the market place to let the market know that we were still there, while at the same time trying to work on the upgrading process."

Over the years, Barth has been a luxury-class motorhome manufacturer with a loyal following of buyers. One of Barth's strong attributes was the perception that the unit is built like a "tank" - strong and durable.

"We've maintained all the same building and construction methods. The only thing we have changed as far as the "look" is that we have put a fiberglass front end on the unit to give the front some style. The thickness of the aluminum that was used did not make it possible to give the front end style - it was basically a flat front. While we did go to fiberglass in the front we tried to maintain the familiar Barth look. We think we have done that."

Prinz said the redesign of the Barth motorhome is now complete and the company has started shipping the new edition. The first two units went to a dealer in British Columbia, Canada. Prinz said, "Obviously, when you're doing this kind of major redesign you wonder if you have caught up to the market or not. You really don't know until you get the product into the field. That first unit sold in six weeks and the second unit sold in three weeks. These are both coaches that in US dollars would retail in the $225 - $265,000 range. So we believe that we are there product wise."

In its first nine months, April to December last year, Barth did $4.5 million and is on track to do $12 million this year. Prinz said, "My goal is to be at $50 million in five years. I think we can get there. I'm not going to compete with Fleetwood, Winnebago or Coachman in their end of the market. We're looking for these niches in the market like the trolleys and other things. And even on the RV side, we are going to focus on the niches where there's not going to be a lot of competition. I'm doing something now that has earned me some strange looks from people. We are going to go into the Class C business. If my reasoning is sound, it's a good decision for the company. My reason is that Fleetwood, Winnebago, Coach-man, Gulfstream, Thor have all abandoned the high-end market because of its extremely small numbers.

"I don't need big numbers. If I can build one or two a week, that's fine. And we are going to give the customer a very good mini-home, probably the best mini-home they have ever seen on the market."

Barth will be building it's mini on the new Ford Super Duty, 14,050 pound gvwr chassis. Prinz continued, "We're going to limit the number of floor plans. We think there's a market for a mini-motorhome priced to retail for someplace between $50 and $75,000."

Another problem that Prinz is having to overcome is that the former management was selling motorhomes direct to the consumer. Prinz is committed to building a dealer network. He said, "Since I've come in, we've said, 'Hey, we obviously can't do both - sell direct and have dealers.' When we get people who want to buy a product, we send them through the dealer, or we will work with them and tell the dealers this is where we're going, this is what we're going to do. We may deal directly with the people, but it still goes through a dealer. Our intent is not to have a large dealer network, but a quality dealer network. We will limit the number of dealers that have the product, allow them some reasonable territories and the ability to make some money-and then give them a good product to sell. Continued