Lancer Camper. Inc Sold Out

sbryan@vtbryans.com wrote:
Hard to tell if it is good or bad. I don't know anything about REV. Experience tells me buyouts are not good for customers (witness what happens to independent RV manufacturers when they are bought out by Thor or Forest River). Time will tell.

.... I read in RV/Travel recently that Thor and F.R. own 84 or 87% of the RV market combined.

DanNJanice wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
I've been always strong admirer of "family tradition" business.
Big corporations have the same production rules what communism did.

Always amazes me how people manage to insert the big bad communism(socialism, etc) into every conversation. Big business has nothing to do with communism, and everything to do with good old American capitalism and greed.
I also enjoy how people seem to think little business = good and big business = bad. Since any successful little business usually becomes big over time, at what point does the business get big enough to become "bad".

I have worked for a small business that grew into a large business, nothing changed as they grew, just the pay cheques got bigger. We were then sold to a big corporation run by bean counters. Was notified I was out of a job by email, while I was in the hospital with my wife who was having cancer surgery. Since 2008 the world is being run by companies that only care about the almighty dollar. the smaller successful business owners are cashing in and enjoying the fruits of their labour.

Kayteg1 wrote:
I've been always strong admirer of "family tradition" business.
Big corporations have the same production rules what communism did.

Always amazes me how people manage to insert the big bad communism(socialism, etc) into every conversation. Big business has nothing to do with communism, and everything to do with good old American capitalism and greed.
I also enjoy how people seem to think little business = good and big business = bad. Since any successful little business usually becomes big over time, at what point does the business get big enough to become "bad".

This is what happens when the big corporations and their bean counters buy a family owned business.

CLicky

To early , no one knows nuttin yet ! Some people would ***** if ya hung-em with a brand new rope !

just shows sales people don,t really know much about what the main office is doing,there to busy trying to make a pay check.

A factory rep left a very bad taste in my mouth at a trade show many years ago when we were looking for a new TC. I asked if Lance would be using aluminum framing in the future like some others were now. The rep told me that wood was the only framing any RV should ever have. Aluminum was garbage and Lance would NEVER use aluminum. NEVER!!! He was adamant about this.

A few months later Lance introduced the MAX series of campers with aluminum frames.

When a privately held company, is acquired by a publicly traded company, the consumer / end user rarely benefits nor does the quality of the product. Too many bean counters and investors to keep happy. REV wants in the towable game bigtime, and were able to lay their hands on a great name with a good reputation. The problem with that is in order to gain market share prices will need to drop to compete with the Thor's and Forest Rivers, and there is only one real way to accomplish that. Give it a couple years and I think you'll find they run it into the ground. Their portfolio is full of names that did not survive the last downturn, and at this point are just that, names. Monaco, Holiday Rambler, R Vision, Fleetwood, the list goes on.

It may be too soon to tell if it will be good or bad. The common wisdom (word on the street for years was that AMF ruined Harley when they bought the company....but they later sold the company and most now agree it would not exist today if AMF had not bought the company. Just saying...

BTW - I don't have a dog in the fight except as a TC owner!

They are keeping the original owners on (at least for now) so almost looks like a deal to get Lance more buying power for materials / supplies and a retirement package in the future for the current owners. Only time will tell if they are going to do away with redundant staff in areas like sales and warranty. Could be good for the company / customer or like others have said the start of a slide but only time will tell.