Thor/Heartland buys out DRV

[Travlingman]

Heartland buys DRV

Wonder what the changes will be?

[kakampers]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

kakampers wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
DRV is a very solvent company. The only build a unit when it is ordered.

I am sitting at Rolling Retreats RV sales in Elk City, OK in the process of ordering a new MS or Elite Suites. The owner Alicia feels the sale will actually improve DRV.

Time will tell if I made a good move!

Welcome to the Heartland family....:)

GRRRRR HA!

Maybe now we can put our National rallies together instead of back to back in Goshen...;)

[Ford_Man]

roadking59 wrote:
I will ever buy another Heartland product.

Me either. Too many little problems.

[roadking59]

I will never buy another Heartland product.

[Cummins12V98]

kakampers wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
DRV is a very solvent company. The only build a unit when it is ordered.

I am sitting at Rolling Retreats RV sales in Elk City, OK in the process of ordering a new MS or Elite Suites. The owner Alicia feels the sale will actually improve DRV.

Time will tell if I made a good move!

Welcome to the Heartland family....:)

GRRRRR HA!

[CardinalCamper]

Mile High wrote:

kennethwooster wrote:
I had been looking somewhat at DRV. I will not do that now, just simply scared if the quality will go down, but still look really nice. Hopefully it will still be a quality product. However; I will keep my interest on Lifestyle. The mother company seems to be quality. They have let Lifestyle continue to be a quality product just as Carriage. Just my thoughts. I've just been burned to many times with poor quality products.

You would have NEVER bought a DRV because of the Lippert frame! Who you trying to kid :S

Agree:)

[Mile_High]

kennethwooster wrote:
I had been looking somewhat at DRV. I will not do that now, just simply scared if the quality will go down, but still look really nice. Hopefully it will still be a quality product. However; I will keep my interest on Lifestyle. The mother company seems to be quality. They have let Lifestyle continue to be a quality product just as Carriage. Just my thoughts. I've just been burned to many times with poor quality products.

You would have NEVER bought a DRV because of the Lippert frame! Who you trying to kid :S

[retispcsi]

As I sit in my 3 month old DRV and read about the Thor acquisition of DRV I don't have a lot of concerns. I hope my warranty on the coach remains intact time will tell. Other then that I already have my current unit weather or not Thor hurts or helps the company. In 3 to 5 years when I get a new unit I will see what is out there. If DRV does not fit the bill there are others.

[RustyJC]

I believe you are both right. DRV only builds to order, but the order could be a dealer order for stock or a customer order for a custom-built unit. There are several dealers (including RVs for Less in Knoxville, TN, DRV's #1 single location dealer for the last 3-4 years) who keep a good dealer inventory and sell a good number of DRVs from stock.

AFAIK, DRV Luxury Suites was in good financial shape - their sales volume is excellent as evidenced by the waiting times for a custom-ordered unit. The selling price for a private business is subject to a lot of variables, such as assumption of all debts and liabilities by the buyer - this would impact the final selling price depending on how much the business might owe on land, buildings, tooling, inventory, etc. Without such knowledge, it's really difficult to evaluate the ultimate cash outlay a buyer pays for a business as "good" or "bad", or to use the ultimate cash outlay as an indicator of the health of the purchased business.

From the press releases, on the surface it appears that the Foughts were ready to cash out, and Thor/Heartland (aside from the DRV product itself) needed space for future expansion of production as well as access to labor as both were maxed out in Elkhart.

Rusty

[kakampers]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
DRV is a very solvent company. The only build a unit when it is ordered.

I am sitting at Rolling Retreats RV sales in Elk City, OK in the process of ordering a new MS or Elite Suites. The owner Alicia feels the sale will actually improve DRV.

Time will tell if I made a good move!

Welcome to the Heartland family....:)

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

A quick web search shows five DRVs on dealer lots ready for immediate delivery in Oklahoma City, 26 in Texas, etc.

Yes, your dealer focuses on custom orders, not keeping a stock on the lot.

[Cummins12V98]

DRV is a very solvent company. The only build a unit when it is ordered.

I am sitting at Rolling Retreats RV sales in Elk City, OK in the process of ordering a new MS or Elite Suites. The owner Alicia feels the sale will actually improve DRV.

Time will tell if I made a good move!

[Softballdad]

laknox wrote:

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.

IMO, there would have been at least =some= ripples in the RV world, if DRV were having issues; same with Cruiser. Vendors complaining about late, or missed, payments; warranty issues going through the roof; dealers bailing out, etc. OR, it could be simply that, as a privately held company, the principals were to the point in life where they wanted out and, either younger family didn't want to (or have the skills) to take over, or the elders simply didn't trust them to run the company. Who really knows unless one of them grants a candid interview...and who really believes any of the attorney involved will let that happen?

Lyle

Heartland buys DRV

Here is what they are saying about the purchase.

[Softballdad]

tsetsaf wrote:

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.

True.

[kennethwooster]

I had been looking somewhat at DRV. I will not do that now, just simply scared if the quality will go down, but still look really nice. Hopefully it will still be a quality product. However; I will keep my interest on Lifestyle. The mother company seems to be quality. They have let Lifestyle continue to be a quality product just as Carriage. Just my thoughts. I've just been burned to many times with poor quality products.

[laknox]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

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.

Recent article (like, today) that said that Airstream is about 3 months behind in production, which is why they're upping capacity by 50%. Could simply have been that DRV chose to build quality instead of quantity. I've worked in the high-end watch business for 15 years and there =are= people who will wait literally =years= for the chance to pay upwards of a million dollars for a new piece. An extreme example is Patek Philippe's newest Grand Complication. A total of 7 pieces are being made; one for the Patek Museum and 6 for sale...at about $2.6 million each. Delivery time for the production model is expected to be upwards of 8 years. All 6 are already under deposit or fully paid for. For people to be impatient for a measly $100k RV that takes a few months to build? 🙂

Lyle