Very good thread...the only silly post: when someone says get out of California.
It isn't that simple
California might be the best place to manufacure... if thats where the market is... shipping is a very large expense....
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Some believe that having few employees by staying small will cut the costs.
The truth is the bigger you are imparts some advantages.
For example: volume purchases by truck camper manufacturers
It might cost $800 for one RV furnace
It might cost $600 each for 50 RV furnaces
It might cost $500 each for 100 RV furnaces
It might cost $300 each for 500 RV furnaces
It might cost $275 each for 1000 RV furnaces
It might cost $150 each for 5000 RV furnaces
What Truck camper manufacturers fit each catagory? Lets look at one.
Lance manufacturered 5000 TC's a year before the crash with 500 employees.
In 2009 they had 100 employees working 36 hours per week... how many TC's were they manufacturing.
... they were smart they increased volume by adding travel tailers. And started getting volume prices again.
Now lets look at Snowriver:
Lets say that they were manufacturing approximately 100 TC's per year...
Bob Mehrer told me what he did to keep costs down: He and several other small manufacturers joined forces and bought in bulk... then divided the componets up. (Bigfoot was not one of the consortium)
It worked pretty well. They could by at the 1000 unit price.
The bad news... as each Truck camper manufacturer went out of business Bob's costs went up.
A week before Snowriver went out of business Bob thought he and his shop forman could survive the winter and make a comeback... when he ran the numbers the increased costs of all of the appliances, and other componets went so high because he was only able to order a few at a time that Snowriver went under.
