Tiffin announces another round of production layoffs

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Tough times! Is it Thor hungry for profits, or is it Tiffin surviving? I heard they have slowed production to 5 units a day, keep close track of dealer inventories and pushing for ordering your new coach rather than buying from some dealer stock. Also have dropped service in Red Bay to all but warranted units.
 
Newmar is offering cash incentives on new rigs. That's shocking.

Interest rates are what they are, and the RV market as a whole appears to be cooling considerably. This is the other side of two years ago when RV's were selling like hotcakes.
 
Newmar is offering cash incentives on new rigs. That's shocking.

Interest rates are what they are, and the RV market as a whole appears to be cooling considerably. This is the other side of two years ago when RV's were selling like hotcakes.
Along with everything else, Richardson Bike Mart in 2019-20 had, and I'm not lying probably by much, literally 500 bikes in the shop for repairs. It was freaking unbelievable. Department store bikes were sold out, couldn't buy a kayak anywhere. People were out on the walking trails in droves, no traffic on the local streets. Couldn't go visit relatives and they couldn't come visit. Best excuse ever " You know I would, but there's that covid thing".
 
Agree... it's the "covid thing." It's taken a little time, but I think the repercussions are just NOW beginning. It wasn't so horrible during that time. But now, the true fall out is happening.
 
Agree... it's the "covid thing." It's taken a little time, but I think the repercussions are just NOW beginning. It wasn't so horrible during that time. But now, the true fall out is happening.
Roger that, the economy is cyclical, as in, what goes up must come down. In the Tiffin case they apparently hired on for the gold rush, and when the mine plays out, don't need so many miners.
 
Tough times! Is it Thor hungry for profits, or is it Tiffin surviving? I heard they have slowed production to 5 units a day, keep close track of dealer inventories and pushing for ordering your new coach rather than buying from some dealer stock. Also have dropped service in Red Bay to all but warranted units.
Tiffin still will work on any rig less than 10 years old, but only warranty workin the first year gets a free campsite. They also restrict how big the repairs/updates/mods can be by allowing only an Express Bay visit every so often (2 techs, 3 hours). I really think this is Tiffin surviving. Less than a year ago they had hundreds of units sitting around completely finished except for a part or two. The costs must have been staggering. Then the market fell apart. Hard times.
 
The RV industry has always been a boom or bust business. It's totally discretionary spending for the customer, so new RV purchases are the first to halt when the economy slows but quick to recover as it picks up again. That leads to wide production & employment swings. as the economy shifts. It's also why the industry avoids keeping components on hand or building rigs ahead of actual orders. Any sort of inventory is a killer when sales drop suddenly.
 
The biggest challenge we faced with the Mobile Surgery Units was inventory.

The end user often wanted a unit as quick as possible such as when one was needed for the Waco standoff or when a hospital needed added capacity during remodeling of O.R.s.

It takes approximately 6 months to manufacture a new unit.

The cost of maintaining $ 2,000,000 units in inventory is very expensive.

Here are a few pictures. I left out the famous picture of our Mr. Rainy.
 

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Interest rates are of course what's hurting big ticket amortized sales, GDP last quarter was +2.7 and unemployment is at it's lowest rate since '69 and we're close to full employment. Here in the N. DFW metro up until a year or so ago houses were selling for above list with no inspections, it was a seller's market. Today they're languishing for months on the market and buyers, when you can find one, are in the cat bird's seat. Interest rate hikes are however intended to cool the economy, ( reduce the velocity of money) and it seems they're doing just that. If a dealer is floor planning inventory they're getting hurt for sure.
 
In addition to what's already been discussed concerning interest rates and the pandemic, I've read several different articles that the quality went to pot after the Thor buyout.

Nobody wants to pay for a high dollar name on a low dollar rig.
 
I've read several different articles that the quality went to pot after the Thor buyout.
Likely more conjecture than actual fact. Two years since the Thor deal isn't enough time to implement design & production economies or to assess their impact on overall quality. It's just human nature to assign the blame for any newly-discovered defect to the latest management or procedural change.
 
In addition to what's already been discussed concerning interest rates and the pandemic, I've read several different articles that the quality went to pot after the Thor buyout.

Nobody wants to pay for a high dollar name on a low dollar rig.
Last month I did a walk thru of a 2023 Tiffin Allegro Bus. Cost was just under $500,000.00. Show special.
Fit and finish were absolute junk. Cabinet doors were paper thin. I almost broke a door just trying to open it. Expanding foam around all of the penetrations in the basement compartments was simply painted over instead of cleaned smooth then painted.
For that kind of money, I expected much more.
 
An Allegro Bus is one of the least expensive "near luxury" RV models. An American Eagle or Newmar King Aire would probably run 50% higher. Chassis cost alone on a rig in that class exceeds what many lesser rigs sell for. Price quality wood furniture these days and you will quickly see why a lot of Rvs get mediocre cabinetry.
 
Likely more conjecture than actual fact. Two years since the Thor deal isn't enough time to implement design & production economies or to assess their impact on overall quality. It's just human nature to assign the blame for any newly-discovered defect to the latest management or procedural change.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
 
Quality is built in and survives over time and use,,my 26 year old American Tradition coach is an example with 142K on the clock and holding up well with minimal expense..At 82 I still do my own maint. and do it in a timely manner..>>>Dan
 
New owners often get blamed for the changes after a buyout but many of those changes were planned and ongoing in a desperate effort to survive before selling. When in trouble, the first things companies do, the bean counters do, is cut the staff with the highest cost. Then they get the lower paid staff to start buying inferior, less costly components. Then the bottom feeders come in buy the company, restructure and gut the whole thing. Gotta live to fight another day. All industries do it.
 
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New owners often get blamed for the changes after a buyout but many of those changes were planned and ongoing in a desperate effort to survive before selling. When in trouble, the first things companies do, the bean counters do, is cut the staff with the highest cost. Then they get the lower paid staff to start buying inferior, less costly components. Then the bottom feeders come in buy the company, restructure and gut the whole thing. Gotta live to fight another day. All industries do it.

Larry Summers, former Pres. of Harvard U. and Sec. of Treasury, famously said " No one in history ever washed a rent car". No one really has equity or skin in the game anymore, the gatekeepers at shareholder run enterprises have one and only one overriding objective and that's providing investors short term gains. If they can't do that they, the shareholders, will gladly find someone else who will. If the company is destroyed in the meantime so be it, both the shareholders and the gatekeepers will just move on. Just this past week that was demonstrated when the executives of Silicon Valley Bank were awarded lavish bonuses just hours before the bank collapsed. Next year those same bank officers will pop up, none for the worse, in charge somewhere else. The sine qua non being how much money can they earn for the investors before the enterprise goes belly up.
 
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