More sales means more work.

For some Forest City, Iowa’s Winnebago Industries employees, it means some employees worked during part of the traditional extra holiday time off, according to the Globe Gazette of Mason City, Iowa.

While most had their normally-scheduled holidays of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, some were set to work New Year’s Eve, company spokeswoman Sheila Davis said.

Winnebago employees typically have an extra week or two of vacation over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, she said.

Read the full article at the Globe Gazette

Country Coach, builder of luxury motor coach, is no more.  Assets are scheduled to be sold in a 3 day auction that begins on February 4th, according to a report on KEZI.com, in a December 30th broadcast story.

Troubled RV maker Country Coach must sell it all.

The announcement comes after a federal bankruptcy court ruling.  The court ordered Country Coach to auction off all of its assets to help pay for the pending debts.

The RV maker is gearing up to auction off all debtor-owned equipment, inventory and furnishings at its Junction City location

For the full story, go to KEZI.com.

(Thanks to RV Navigator for heads-up)

RV Manufacturer content pages are being moved from Haw Creek to new RV Manufacturer pages at rv.exit78.com.

The first of the new pages, Class A Motorhome and Motor Coach Manufacturers, has been completed at the new location and the old page has been updated.

Eventually, all new and updated content will be at the new location, but, for the near term, updates for the RV Manufacturer pages will continue to be made in both locations.

Jim Rogers, CEO of Kampgrounds of America, and Bob Wheeler, CEO of Airstream, talk about the improving prospects for both RVs and camping on December 29th, 2009.  Bob Wheeler says that 2010 will see a significant recovery for the RV industry.  According to Jim Rogers, KOA had record occupancies in the summer of 2009 for various reasons, including people staying closer to home and the price of fuel.  RV camping business at KOA was up 14%.  Fifteen percent of the KOA visitors were first-timers.

According to the Arizona State Parks Foundation, a special session of the State Legislature has cut funding for the state parks system to the point all parks will close.  The cuts are part of a $205 million budget reduction to mitigate an estimated $1.5 billion budget deficit.

In an Urgent Call to Action, the foundation is asking for help.

URGENT CALL TO ACTION!
The Arizona State Legislature has acted on House Bill 2001.  It eliminates the ability of our Arizona State Parks system to operate.  All parks will ultimately close as a result of this action.  If you or your children wish to ever visit such extraordinary places like Kartchner Caverns State Park, Tonto Natural Bridge State Park or Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, you must act today.  It is our last hope.

Call, email or write (sample letter at right) Governor Jan Brewer and urge her to veto the parks cuts listed in the article below.

Phone:  602-542-4331 or 800-253-0883
Email via Governor’s Contact page at:
www.governor.state.az.us/Contact.asp
Mail:  The Honorable Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona,
1700 West Washington, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Read more at the Arizona State Parks Foundation website.

Faced with a “perfect storm” of record fuel prices, reduced credit availability, rising unemployment, and a deepening recession, some RV dealers have adapted their inventory to changing times with reduced inventories and smaller RVs.  One such dealership in Oregon, owned by Gary and Kay Craven, is featured today in an article,  Not-quite-as-big rigs, in The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon. 

Craven said he and his staff “moved aggressively” to reduce inventory, adjust his product line to feature smaller RVs and beef up the dealership’s training and customer service. Also, several employees were let go.

The big bus-sized motor homes, referred to in the industry as Class A RVs, get roughly 8 to 10 miles per gallon and cost around $200,000, Craven said. As Craven moved those off his lots, he didn’t replace them, opting for smaller motor homes and less expensive, towable RVs.

Read the rest of the article,  Not-quite-as-big rigs, in The Bulletin of Bend, Oregon.

The market for recreational vehicles was dropping before the housing bubble burst, unemployment shot up and credit dried up.  Many economists view RVs as an indicator of where the economy is headed.

An article in the Chicago Tribune suggests that things are now looking up for RVs and, possibly, just possibly, in the long term, the economy as a whole.

Now comes word that RV sales have started picking up. Airstream Inc. is boosting production of its iconic caravans and expanding its work force by 50 percent.

"Airstream is back on the road to recovery," Chief Executive Bob Wheeler declared. "We can expect to see significant growth."

As decades go, the 2000s ended with such a bust that the 2010s almost can’t help but look good in comparison.

With the economy lurching from housing crisis to credit crisis to its ongoing job crisis, it might seem premature to declare a recovery in the offing.

read the rest of the article: RV sales shift out of reverse, point economy down slow road to recovery

In an interview with Reuters, CEO Bob Olson says that improvements in deliveries have resulted in increased production by Winnebago for the first time in years.

 

But Olson said he remained concerned that suppliers…  might have difficulty ramping up along with Winnebago and other RV makers and hamper the industry’s ability to fully capture any recovery.

"We rely on a lot of suppliers for a lot of raw materials — everything from polyethylene to ABS plastics to appliances to wood products to fabrics to chasses," he said.

"I think as we gear up as an industry, you’re going to have some of these suppliers having a hard time ramping up their schedules to the levels we would like."

for the full article read: Winnebago CEO sees headwinds continuing

In a related Reuters article, Winnebago says, "The worst may be over."