Latest comments from Jeff Hanemaayer on future of Roadtrek

[gregmchugh]

https://rvdailyreport.com/industry/h...-not-acquired/

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

https://rvdailyreport.com/industry/h...-not-acquired/

That reads like hopeful wishing and speculation on a bleak outcome of the former owner that no longer has any skin in the game.

[booster]

He appeared to think the warranties would disappear with the bankruptcy, and if that is correct it will certainly help keep the purchase price down.


What is hard to tell is what cancelling all those warranties do to the value of the Roadtrek brand. We heard from many people, for many years, that they got their Roadtreks over other brands at least somewhat or mostly because of the better warranty, so there would likely be lots of "negative ambassadors" out there if the company comes back without picking up the warranties.


I think that how much potential buyers think the brand is damaged would probably be the determining factor for if it sells or not. Of course the could probably just get the assets and them change the name, even if the products were mostly the same.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by Davydd

That reads like hopeful wishing and speculation on a bleak outcome of the former owner that no longer has any skin in the game.

He has some skin in the game, my understanding is that the family still owns the Kitchener facility and it was being leased to the the subsequent tenants after the sale to the investment group.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

He has some skin in the game, my understanding is that the family still owns the Kitchener facility and it was being leased to the the subsequent tenants after the sale to the investment group.

Interesting. He didn't mention that. Real estate, especially bare bones factory shells are a dime a dozen and have no intrinsic value.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Interesting. He didn't mention that. Real estate, especially bare bones factory shells are a dime a dozen and have no intrinsic value.

It depends on the location. Glancing at the RoadTrek facility in aerial photo, I bet that particular shell would go for at least $2 million anywhere near greater Houston. I don't know what the markets are like elsewhere, though.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Interesting. He didn't mention that. Real estate, especially bare bones factory shells are a dime a dozen and have no intrinsic value.

We have been through the facility, although it was in 2009, and while it is a pretty normal manufacturing building, it has been setup for RV building and that would indeed reduce the cost of getting into the business compared to an empty shell. Probably the most expensive part of the setup was the painting areas and associated ventilation and pollution controls, or what we saw. The rest was some dividing walls, lifts, material handling stuff, racking etc. I am sure there is an office area and some 3D drafting and design stuff that would be also turnkey.


Not like buying an auto manufacturing facility with it all in place, but substantially less expensive than starting from scratch, IMO. The downside of it is that you would be stuck with a setup that may not be to your liking and not be the most efficient. When we were there, the place was literally chaos on the shop floor, and I have been in a lot of factories to compare to.

[mumkin]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Interesting. He didn't mention that. Real estate, especially bare bones factory shells are a dime a dozen and have no intrinsic value.

Actually he has mentioned it in many of the articles that I have read, and when he posted on the RT Facebook pages, he talked about it. He has certainly not made any secret of it. I wonder when the rent was last paid.

[wincrasher]

I'd bet that abandoning the existing warranties will not be a big hit to the brand of Roadtrek that many of you would think it is.

New customers might be shaky in trusting the warranty from a restarted New Roadtrek, but that is easily solved by having the warranty be a 3rd party product, or offering attractive pricing on the vans.

Existing customers would shy away from another Roadtrek purchase because of being burned by their current warranty going poof? I doubt there really are that many repeat customers - I'd bet that the vast majority of RV purchases of this type are a one-and-done. Granted, some of us are crazy enough to have owned several vans, but I'll bet we are only 1-2% of the user base.

[gregmchugh]

Roadtrek did have a large base of repeat owners, at least they did before the end of family ownership, not sure how many have continued to be repeat customers since then. With Roadtreks, at least, I think you get a skewed representation of owners on the Internet. I suspect there is a very large base of owners who don’t do the social media thing.

[Doneworking]

To say that Hanemaayer doesn't have any skin in the game is an interesting attitude. I guess a lifetime of watching your father build up the concept, the product and the brand and then running it yourself for thirty years doesn't mean anything? Come on!

This was the family's baby and now someone else has thrown it out with the wash after it was flipped several times in recent years.

Gregmchugh is correct about a lot of owners not participating in social media. I am one of them and I have owned two Roadtreks and probably would buy a new one if I was in the market for a new rig.

Sometimes - it seems to me - this forum goes from the mainstream to the extreme.

Some of us don't do social media because of a lot of good reasons, privacy concerns and tracking being a couple of them.

In any event, it is a tragedy when contemporary financial engineering causes events like this to occur and lest we forget it is cold today in Kitchener and 900 or so folks don't have a job. The esoterics of all this probably don't mean a whole heck of a lot to them and their families.

[RossWilliams]

I don't think many Roadtrek dealers are going to jump at the chance to sell Roadtreks while telling their prior customers that the warranty they were sold is worthless. I also doubt that the warranty costs are an enormous expense given their value as word of mouth advertising. That doesn't necessarily mean the new owners, if found, will see it that way.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Doneworking

To say that Hanemaayer doesn't have any skin in the game is an interesting attitude. I guess a lifetime of watching your father build up the concept, the product and the brand and then running it yourself for thirty years doesn't mean anything? Come on!

This was the family's baby and now someone else has thrown it out with the wash after it was flipped several times in recent years.

The Hanemaayers sold it evidently without due diligence to a holding company that subsequently ran it into the ground with terrible management when Class Bs are bigger than ever as a business. They got out of the business, thus no skin in the game and I suspect their opinions don’t count for a hill of beans now. I don’t know why anyone wants to defend any of the players in this situation.

As for the real estate it could be part of the problem for a new buyer and if the Hanemaayers own the buildings they don’t have a non objective view of it. I pretty much see no property value for reuse as I worked in Target Stores Property Development and encountered numerous scenarios in Target buying up similar big box property for their stores. Sometimes it could be used and most of the time it was torn down. That’s why I think it has not much intrinsic value. And the manpower and expertise may be gone with the wind. I certainly would not want any current management retained. That was Hymer’s mistake.

Thor, the biggest in the business, passed on it. Anyone else would be making a major gamble. EHG as you remember made several mistakes in the North American market before saddling up with Roadtrek. It could be they were not as vaunted as people claimed but just a second generation of inheritors desiring to take their money and run.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't think many Roadtrek dealers are going to jump at the chance to sell Roadtreks while telling their prior customers that the warranty they were sold is worthless. I also doubt that the warranty costs are an enormous expense given their value as word of mouth advertising. That doesn't necessarily mean the new owners, if found, will see it that way.

Not to mention, that if Roadtrek is restarted, they might be asking potential dealers to PURCHASE a new franchise. That might be a very tough sell.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

Roadtrek did have a large base of repeat owners, at least they did before the end of family ownership, not sure how many have continued to be repeat customers since then. With Roadtreks, at least, I think you get a skewed representation of owners on the Internet. I suspect there is a very large base of owners who don’t do the social media thing.

those folks may have aged out of buying new vans. Especially with the recent run up in prices. If you started buying Roadtrek's in your 40's (and they were relatively cheap) you might have bought two or three over your lifetime to get where you are now. If you are now in your 70's, will you buy another at these kinds of prices? I don't know.

[Paul the Gardens]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

those folks may have aged out of buying new vans. Especially with the recent run up in prices. If you started buying Roadtrek's in your 40's (and they were relatively cheap) you might have bought two or three over your lifetime to get where you are now. If you are now in your 70's, will you buy another at these kinds of prices? I don't know.

I agree the cycle is almost over, baby boomers are getting older. Same thing happening at Harley Davidson,. The younger buyers have less money they will look at less expensive RVs.