Financial Condition of Heartland RVs

It seems that I see an announcement every week or so about an RV manufacturer who is closing up or severely reducing its production workforce. A headline on RV net claims RV sales are down 80%.

I am told that the reason Western Recreational Vehicles , manufacturer of Alpenlite RV's, went into bankruptcy is because it had invested very heavily in a new line of Class A vehicles and did not have enough cash flow to carry itself through the current difficult period.

I hope and pray that Heartland has the financial resources to make it through while expanding its product lines.

I am very pleased with my Sundance.

Duramax1,

I moved your post out of the Eagle Ridge thread and into its own new thread here in the Heartland General Forum. I feel your comments are worthy of being addressed on their own for everyone's benefit.

As we all know, high fuel prices followed by the financial system crisis have really hit the RV industry hard. For most, RVs and RVing is a luxury and in tough times, the luxuries are set aside by consumers first. Between being a burden just to move your existing RV very far when we had at $5+ a gallon diesel fuel followed by the inability to get credit followed by declining home values, further affecting our ability to obtain credit and therefore RVs, you, I, Heartland and the entire RV industry have been dealt a devastating blow.

We have all watched as RV manufacturers, one after another have ceased operation in one form or another.

That all said, I want to give as much confidence to the base of Heartland Owners as well as prospective owners that "Heartland will weather this storm". As many of you know, Heartland is privately held. As such, we are not driven (crazy) by certain Wall Street pressures to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the company and customers.

Heartland has no debt and has cash in the bank. Our equity partners, Catteron Investments continues to stan behind us. Nice to have them as a resource.

While the last set of retail registration statistics still show Heartland on the rise, year-over-year, we are not selling the number of units we had planned this year.

As we felt the economy tighten, we took specific steps to guard ourselves. These steps include workforce reductions (production mostly) and alterations to the production schedules.

Changes we have made should not be felt by current customers. It may add a small amount of lead time to factory orders for prospective customers.

That is about all I can say. I work for Heartland and my loyalty is with Heartland. But trust me, I am very high on Heartland and I firmly believe we will come out of the other end of all of this a stronger company. A company with a larger slice of a smaller pie.

Enjoy with us

Jim Beletti
Director of Owners Interests

Thanks for the information, Jim. I appreciate the positive picture, and it is encouraging to know Heartland is proactive and looking to the future as a leader.

Some observations on my wirlwind plant tour with Jim a few months ago.

Heartland was already in a position that the Large manufacturers are now scrambling to get into...... consolidated into one area vs being spread out all over the state of Indiana and in some cases all over the country.

The manufacturing plants, customer service, engineering, basicly everything is in one huge complex of buildings covering several blocks right in the heart of RV country.

The management team is very open to ideas, fairly young with fresh ideas and don't come off as a bunch of stuffed suits. Constantly looking for ways to improve the end product and keep customers happy.

They were still producing when several big companies were closing plants and laying off in the local area.

They adapted quickly bringing out lighter inexpensive units as consumers wanted to move to smaller tow vehicles.

They do not produce the motorized units which took the biggest hit in the RV segment.


IMHO they will be one of the few left standing when it all washes out.





Now for no debt and money in the bank........ that ain't me LOLNone

I certainly hope things work out for everybody. In addition to having the new Augusta I have a new Dodge 3500 and I wonder about my warranty on the truck with that corporation trying to unload and obviously in some deep water.

Sundance 3200

I am glad to hear Heartland has the financial strength to weather this current economic storm. I was unaware when I purchased my Sundance this month that the company was so young and had grown so much. I simply liked the quality, value and floor plan.

Having said that my first experience w/ customer service from Heartland was not good at all and while poor customer service may not put the last nail in the coffin for a manufacturing company it is a major component of having loyal customers who spread the word about their product.

Calvin...although no company is perfect, and I don't know exactly what happened with your experience with customer service, I can say this is most likely an anomoly.

You will find very few people who have anything BUT a very positive experience with Heartland's customer service. I quess what I am trying to say is don't judge the entire customer service staff at Heartland on one experience...give them another shot, and if necessary, move up the customer service ladder with your issue. We've had excellent service from them and so have virtually every other owner that we've met...and we've met quite a few!

That fact is, their service is usually so good, that customers HAVE spread the word and that is a major factor in Heartland's unprecedented growth in the last few years.

Good Luck!

Jim,

Thanks for the info. As a new Sundance owner, you just gave me more confidence in my decision to buy a Heartland.

A lot of things that seem to be Heartland customer service issues are actually a dealer problem no matter what the dealer says.

Greg

Old Business Model.....

Jim it is encouraging to at least hear of a company with a realistic business model.
There was a time when no debt and cash in the bank was the norm, not the exception. That has always been how the lumber yard has operated, not to say that inventory and receivable financing has not been necessary over the years.
In times like these the companies that can dig in and hunker down until the economic climate improves are the ones that come out the best.
In our market place two national companies bought in 2 years ago paying top dollar for lumber yards and construction companies. They were going to show us locals how it is done..................
One is closing 89 facilities, nation wide, immediately.
The other was delisted from the stock market on Friday.
It is going to get even tougher out there for a while.......................

Heartland

Hi all:

I am a Heartland owner, but unlike Jim I am not a Heartland employee so although a loyal customer i am not quite as biased as Jim. I live in Elkhart which is the RV capital of the world and Heartlands home. The current recession has been VERY SEVERE here, with many, many dealers, suppliers and manufacturers shutting down or completely closed. Unemployment here is up at close to 20% which is under reported because many have not claimed and/or returned to south of the border. But still chugging i see Big Horns and other Heartland products headed out of town and Heartland plants still are busy and active. This is a testament to their value and reputation.

Paul Quandee

It is sad to see so many manufacturers of recreational vehicles closing their doors. Blame it on the economy, poor management, Uncle George, the Chinese or whatever. It is still a pitiful sight. From a consumer's standpoint, our choices in products are getting smaller and smaller. I beginning to wonder how we will tow our giant fifth-wheelers with small pickup when auto manufacturers quit making 3/4 and 1 ton pickup trucks. In all of this gloom and doom the bright pinpoint of light in the darkness is Heartland who is not only keeping their current product lines but are actually adding to it. When I bought our Heartland product over a year ago I was wondering how and if Heartland would stay around. So far they have managed, mostly through great customer service, even though there have been glitches. So, let me say, congratulations Heartland and keep on pushing forward.

Duramax1 said:

It seems that I see an announcement every week or so about an RV manufacturer who is closing up or severely reducing its production workforce. A headline on RV net claims RV sales are down 80%.

I am told that the reason Western Recreational Vehicles , manufacturer of Alpenlite RV's, went into bankruptcy is because it had invested very heavily in a new line of Class A vehicles and did not have enough cash flow to carry itself through the current difficult period.

I hope and pray that Heartland has the financial resources to make it through while expanding its product lines.

I am very pleased with my Sundance.

Click to expand...

I found this link interesting and realated to your thread.
http://www.rvinews.com/News/tabid/1...able-registrations-show-further-weakness.aspx
Sadly another manufacturer, ameri-camp, has closed its doors. Times are tough.

Nice "find" Bill and Karen. Another RV trade I never heard of. I will start tracking that one too.

They state:

In the fifth wheel market, Heartland RV has gained 3.8 percent share in August followed by Thor at 0.7 percent and K-Z at 0.5 percent. Forest River lost 1.2 percent.

Click to expand...

This is so significant in this very down economy - to see your brand gaining market share. It proves the point that our slice of a smaller pie will get bigger.

Thank you EVERYONE for the support of the brand. Most of you love us "warts and all". We are not perfect but we try so hard". Thank you for standing by us and if you feel comfortable doing so, recommending us to your friends who may be in the market.

Jim

arisce said:

I found this link interesting and realated to your thread.
http://www.rvinews.com/News/tabid/1...able-registrations-show-further-weakness.aspx
Sadly another manufacturer, ameri-camp, has closed its doors. Times are tough.

Click to expand...

Extreme RV also closed this month. Not a huge surprise there as they were owned by Weekend Warrior that went under a short time ago.


This month has been the worst so far. Very few units shipped and most transporters have been waiting several days to weeks for a load.

Does anyone have a list of the RV manufacturers that have gone out of business, lets say in the passed 2 years?

azbound said:

Does anyone have a list of the RV manufacturers that have gone out of business, lets say in the passed 2 years?

Click to expand...

What I have found sofar:

Weekend Warrior , Pilgrim , Travel Supreme , King of the Road , Alpenlite , Alpha , Ameri-Camp.......Kenny

I don't know why but Heartland, according to my sales person, had a shut down last week and my order will not be offline until the 11th. I was suppose to get the fiver the first week, as in today of November. Now it looks like the 15th. Not a big deal as it is just a weekend getaway, not a home. I am chomping at the bit though..
Paul

Hi Paul,

I can tell you why. We are taking a little time off in November and a little time in December to match the rate of new orders. Times are VERY slow within the industry and we just can't run the plants at half of our capacity.

Sorry that it delayed your delivery. Your may have been in before the latest production schedules were made. Thanks so much for your patience.

Jim

Jim Beletti said:

Hi Paul,

I can tell you why. We are taking a little time off in November and a little time in December to match the rate of new orders. Times are VERY slow within the industry and we just can't run the plants at half of our capacity.

Sorry that it delayed your delivery. Your may have been in before the latest production schedules were made. Thanks so much for your patience.

Jim

Click to expand...

That's not an unusual thing in the RV industry or any industry that produces on a production line for that matter. Auto makers are the highest in visibility news wise as they shut down production lines, often several times a year, to match inventory to demand, make revisions or changeover to new models.

It simply costs too much to run a factory at a lower production level than it was designed for and is cheaper to close the plant down and do temporary layoffs than it is to run the plant with idle workers.

I've seen this all my life with my dad now retired from GM and my sister currently working there.