Thor/Heartland buys out DRV

cdlaine wrote:
I'm sure I don't understand all the issues...but, doesn't it seem like 47 mill. is undervalued for the purchase price of one of the RV industry standards for "nice" motorhome manufact. ??? With out looking at looking the data spreadsheet...just going solely on my RV storage facility ,...sure seems like a lot of their high end units have been sold. I would assume that 47 mill. includes the name, plant, inventory, distribution, subsidiary contracts, rights, staff, proprietary items...etc. , would seem a bargain for Thor ???

Heck , many major league basketball/football/soccer/baseball individual stars sign contracts worth duple/treble that amount.

Just seems odd.

Charles

I was thinking along the same lines...=especially= for TWO companies. Article says they're buying Cruiser RV, too.

Lyle

cdlaine wrote:
I'm sure I don't understand all the issues...but, doesn't it seem like 47 mill. is undervalued for the purchase price of one of the RV industry standards for "nice" motorhome manufact. ??? With out looking at looking the data spreadsheet...just going solely on my RV storage facility ,...sure seems like a lot of their high end units have been sold. I would assume that 47 mill. includes the name, plant, inventory, distribution, subsidiary contracts, rights, staff, proprietary items...etc. , would seem a bargain for Thor ???

For ever DRV sold, there are two or four dozen other units sold in price ranges from 50 to 25 % of the cost of a DRV.

Frankly, only a small percentage of the 5er market can afford a 5er that costs more than $100,000.

Looking at storage locations doesn't really show a broad picture of the 5er market. Folks with cheaper rigs find cheaper storage locations. Folks with exensive rigs pay for storage with covers, better security, etc.

One thing that I've watched over the past couple years in Texas is a significant increase in the number of DRV units on dealer lots. One of the complaints about a DRV three years ago was the length of time someone had to wait for their unit be built.

The number of unit sales has increased in recent year, but the size (and cost) of the inventory sitting on dealer lots - has more than eaten up any extra profit from those additional sales.

It doesn't take a huge amount of money to get into a business and build a high quality product. It takes incredible amounts of money to move that product from a basically custom manufacturing operation to a scaled up national level ready for immediately delivery operation.

Softballdad wrote:
Would it have been better for DRV to go out of business? I don't know all the details, but Thor/Heartland buying them may have been the lifeline the brand needed to keep the doors open. The future cost savings everyone is mentioning could be the elimination of redundancies in their operational/manufacturing process. That shouldn't affect the quality of customer service nor production. Without details we just don't know, but hope for the best.

Probably explains the low price. I bet there are some serious liabilities in the deal.

Would it have been better for DRV to go out of business? I don't know all the details, but Thor/Heartland buying them may have been the lifeline the brand needed to keep the doors open. The future cost savings everyone is mentioning could be the elimination of redundancies in their operational/manufacturing process. That shouldn't affect the quality of customer service nor production. Without details we just don't know, but hope for the best.

Ford Man wrote:
Had another dealer offer much more trade in value than the dealer that I bought it from on another brand of equal quality. I was afraid when I bought the Landmark that it would be a one time deal with this rv dealership. I trade every 3 years and have never had a deal where I would loose that much on one 5th wheel.

So it's just a dealer trade value issue...not that the Landmark has lost that much in value....

Had another dealer offer much more trade in value than the dealer that I bought it from on another brand of equal quality. I was afraid when I bought the Landmark that it would be a one time deal with this rv dealership. I trade every 3 years and have never had a deal where I would loose that much on one 5th wheel.

Ford Man wrote:
I hope the quality does not go down on DRV being bought by Heartland. Because I own a 2013 Landmark by Heartland and have had nothing but little problems out of it. Going to order a new RV within the next couple of days. Heartland Landmark has lost 60% of initial cost if traded in on a 2015 Landmark 365 at the same dealer I purchased the 2013 from. Not going to happen!

I remember you posting when you got that rig! Full body paint I think? Anyway...so sorry it didn't work out!

Ford Man wrote:
I hope the quality does not go down on DRV being bought by Heartland. Because I own a 2013 Landmark by Heartland and have had nothing but little problems out of it. Going to order a new RV within the next couple of days. Heartland Landmark has lost 60% of initial cost if traded in on a 2015 Landmark 365 at the same dealer I purchased the 2013 from. Not going to happen!

The major loss in equity is within the first two years....we traded our six year old Bighorn and only lost 20% of what we originally paid when we ordered our Landmark, on which we received a 28% discount on Heartland's MSRP. BTW...we've had virtually no issues out of our 2013 Landmark...

Guess I should have bought an Excel. Thor.....at least it wasn't keystone.

I hope the quality does not go down on DRV being bought by Heartland. Because I own a 2013 Landmark by Heartland and have had nothing but little problems out of it. Going to order a new RV within the next couple of days. Heartland Landmark has lost 60% of initial cost if traded in on a 2015 Landmark 365 at the same dealer I purchased the 2013 from. Not going to happen!