A Post Roadtrek World - What to Do?

[gregmchugh]

There was an article in the news about the mass layoffs at the Ontario company that supplied leather seats to EHGNA. One of the members of the Roadtrek & Hymer Owners Group is contacting the company to see if they can supply the leather front seats to owners directly. The recent year models use a leather seat cover that goes over the factory seats so they are easy to install by owners. Maybe they can bring a few people back from layoffs to supply leather seats directly to owners. Some people want them with the Roadtrek or Hymer brand logo and some don’t

[ClassB4Me]

Can Jim Hammill and the other Roadtrek management be sued in civil court for damages relating to the Roadtrek receivership event?

Seems like a some could make a case. Especially if the Roadtrek managers are deposed.

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

I don't see how you can say the Hymer family didn't loose in this, nor paint them as crooks & thieves without any evidence. They clearly lost several hundred million dollars in their investment and profit on the sale of EHGNA. To think they should have an obligation to pour even more money into this mess is pretty naive. They don't owe the employees anything other than employment if they had a viable operation.

Of course they lost a few hundred million in the North American branch, but they walked away from the table with BIG BUCKS from Thor for the sale of the majority of their business in Europe to Thor.

It was Hymer who waltzed into Canada, took over a viable 300 employee company... expanded it spending millions to add new factories... triple employment... introducing 8 or 9 new products in 2 years... most competing directly with the Roadtrek brands. And it was all done by borrowing from banks and themselves. No sympathy for what is obviously bad planning, bad supervision, and plain bad business.

So much for the highly vaunted German systems. If there were any books being cooked by existing management, I will also drop that in Hymers' laps. If they didn't bother to do due diligence... either they were in cahoots or incompetent.

[ClassB4Me]

Originally Posted by mumkin

So much for the highly vaunted German systems. If there were any books being cooked by existing management, I will also drop that in Hymers' laps. If they didn't bother to do due diligence... either they were in cahoots or incompetent.

With respect, that seems outrageous. Hymer had completed 6-7 acquisitions without any problem before setting foot in NA.

Remember, the founder was heavily involved in the company before he died - not the children.

Once the possible embezzlement was discovered, the game was essentially over. If Roadtrek senior management (with possible help from the holding company for Roadtrek) helped deceive the Hymers from the start, I can understand why their options were limited. The Roadtrek holding company had expressed looking to sell Roadtrek because the return they originally sought had not materialized.

Who could they trust?

To this day Jim Hammill has not fully denied the assertions of fraud and dances around the situation.