Well, for all NuWa owners, I hope that the statement from their president, Mr. Ford, "We will never close our parts, warranty and service departments. Those will remain open." holds up. I think that is a rather bold statement considering the current economic climate.
The market has to change with the times, unfortunately this means that lots may disappear. Biggest problem is not fuel price although this does come into the equation, problem is disposable income or lack there of. A lot of people are loaned to the hilt and can't afford more and banks are not as free with loans these days.
Things are a bit better in Canada as our banks so far are doing alright or at least not going under. But even here it is getting harder to get loans for toys.
Some European manufacturers are doing alright but they have a lot different market over there. MH's tend to be a lot smaller, a 7-8m (22-26') are pretty much the standard and most are diesel (most with 4 cyl). A large MH there is 30-35' and though there are some NA brands over there they are only a small part of the market. Few MH's there have slides. Part of the issue there is fuel economy and has been for years and most are taxed on engine size. Smaller engines means smaller lighter MH's in general. We may see more MH's here aimed at a similar market though NA's in general like space and lots of it.....
Very sad, while I don't own nor have I ever owned a luxury rig I can appreciate the technology, building advances and materials they bring to all the other campers.
I hope they pull thru.
Michael 2 DD's and my DW 6 Acre's in Southern Maine 2009 Crossroads Cruiser CF31SB 2008 Chevy 2500HD LT 4X4 Camping Pictures
I do not own a Nu-Wa but think they are a quality coach builder. Unfortunatly for the RV industry, there are too many manufacturers out there and this downturn will result in the herd being thinned out. I don't know Nu-Wa's financial condition, but shutting down production until current inventory is reduced will allow them to start up again (assuming they don't have a lot of debt to service, which requires an ongoing flow of $$$ into the company coffers.)
I'm an optimist - fuel prices in our area have dropped dramatically. Yesterday I filled up and paid $2.06 LESS per gallon than I was 4 months ago. Now if the banks will loosen their grip a little, alot of industries will perk back up.
Johnofbham wrote: Spare parts (and service) are very profitable, plus when the economy turns around, you can always go back into production.
Frank - hope the short quote is OK.
John - Quality Control has always been a problem in the RV industry.
The "go back into production" reminds me of an aircraft industry story.
"Way back when" I was employed by Douglas Aircraft Company. Common practice "in the industry" was to hire and lay-off with the rise and fall of sales of commercial aircraft
DC-9 production took off - lots of airline contracts.
Due to lack of room at the aircraft facilities, the nose assembly was "farmed out" to Santa Monica - which was normally all missile & space apps.
New workers were hired to fill jobs vacated during the last lay-off,
and of course some didn't want to commute from Long Beach.
(Lots of skilled aircraft workers that had been laid off had found
other "internal" jobs and/or gone elsewhere).
A job of one of the inspectors was to "red circle" rivets that
needed to be redone on the nose assemblies.
He "red circled" one -or some- of the rivets done by an employee,
telling the employee something to the effect of, "Cut that one out".
When he checked back . . .Oops! . . . The employee had cut a neat hole about the size of a silver dollar following the red circle!
Now maybe on an RV it could be repaired - or covered up - by
"Skilled Amish Craftsmen", LOL!
Not so with a nose assembly - costly "error".
~
JC
* This post was
edited 11/07/08 07:03pm by ol Bombero-JC *
I don't know but suspect jobs in RV manufacturing plants pay a lot less than those in the Aircraft industry. That being said I am concerned that when and if NUWA restarts manufacturing RV's, that the experience level of those new employees won't be there and either will the quality we have all come to expect from NUWA.
So lets say NUWA restarts manufacturing 5vers in 2 years, I for one would wait for a couple model years before I bought a NUWA 5ver. If most potential buyers are like me, could NUWA make it through those start up years?
Makes me wonder!! I hope I'm wrong, I would really like to see NUWA back in business. They set the bar high and that keeps most of the upper end manufacturers honest.
Gary
2009 Bighorn 3400RL
2008 Chevy 3500HD DRW
DuraMax w/allison
Here is a response by the CEO of Nu-Wa taken directly from the Escapees Forum.
Quote: A response by Mike Mitchell, CEO of Nu-Wa.
QUOTE
Rumors abound in our industry today and any action not viewed as ordinary seems to create emotion and statements without factual basis. Below are some facts to dispel the inaccuracies where they might exist. As well, we typically find the media doesn't a very good job of describing the conversation of an interview. Not sure where they got the word "slamming", but it's not from Neil, just as he wouldn't have said "never" about something that he can not be certain of. Most of our competitors are closing much of November and most of December. NuWa is concerned about meeting our delivery commitments, thus we are finishing all units in the system in Nov., Dec, and early January and closing for an undetermined amount of time thereafter. Two issues are causing the rumors that we could have avoided. One is our desire to be upfront with dealers and customers. Most manufacturers will "hide" all information as much as possible. And two is the Federal WARN employee notification law, that requires 60 days notice to all employees involved with a "mass" layoff. Because of the uncertainty of what may happen early January, we felt we had no choice but to give the worst possible notice to our employees, even though that decision has not in fact been made. If we don't do so, and business doesn't rebound, then NuWa is required by law to pay "all" employees full pay and benefits for another 60 days. Thus we felt we had to prepare for the worst scenario by giving this early and harsh notice, but hope for something better. The WARN law has little flexibility and clarity in interpretation, just as we might expect.
I am leaving for three weeks on a long planned trip to Europe. I'm not taking my computer. Obviously it's not the best time to be gone, but I'm committed. I just wanted to make sure that members understand why I won't be active on the forum for three weeks. I will provide updates when I return in December.
1. NuWa has announced to it's dealer network a planned production shutdown due to a lack of sufficient orders in the backlog system to keep its plant running efficiently. It is more costly in some cases to build inefficiently, than it is to temporarily cease building at all. We are not comfortable building additional factory inventory. And that is our predicament in today's extremely soft economy. The reason NuWa has chosen to not accept orders at all for a while is to eliminate the possibility of an assumed commitment to build a retail sold trailer by a certain time. Nothing could be worse than for a dealer to sell a trailer, give NuWa the order, sell the customer's trade in, and then find that NuWa will not meet the expectations of the customer for delivery date. We would rather not take the order than to take it and risk disappointing.
2. NuWa has made no announcement or decision about permanently ceasing production of RVs despite what the rumors might suggest. We have made such a decision for the short term and will observe the retail market activity for a few weeks in an effort to determine when and if the market will rebound. Our crystal ball is no more accurate than anyones, thus we simply do not know what cards will be dealt us going forward. I would expect that more will be known by mid December to early January and further announcements will be made as decisions are made.
3. In order to meet the delivery date expectations of customers, NuWa will complete all units that are already in the production system and those that are ordered in time to join the last groups of units being entered into the production process. I would estimate that a unit needs to be ordered by November 15th or so, to be built before the production shutdown. As was done before, the "staggered" shutdown process will be utilized, which means each department's employee's will go on layoff as their department's work is finished.
4. A somewhat vague federal law which requires advance notice of a "mass" layoff by a business has forced us to provide notice of layoff to virtually all employees as a protection to NuWa of the unknown. This inflexible law forces us to plan for the worst and hope for the best in our efforts to "not trap" ourselves from regulatory actions. This action unfortunately increases the probability of rumor based on emotion and not fact.
5. NuWa has taken action on two very important issues to give confidence to consumers and dealers and to help dispel rumors. First NuWa has set aside in reserve the estimated funds to meet its obligations of warranty for HitchHikers in the hands of customers and on the lots of dealers. In other words, even if the economy deals NuWa the worst possible hand going forward, the assurance of continued warranty support has been committed. As well, NuWa has planned a "stand alone" service, parts and warranty division that will continue to take care of customers, who visit the factory, even if production should not re-activate. Being unsure of what will happen in the future, we feel that it is our responsibility to reasonably meet the warranty and service obligations for our products, and I know of no other manufacturer, who has taken these steps to ensure and protect the position of its customers and dealers. Obviously it is our hope that NuWa will continue to build RVs for a long time in the future, but just in case, we wanted to eliminate unnecessary fear. Nothing can be guaranteed forever, but I would rather be a customer buying a new HitchHiker today with this knowledge, than take a chance that some other manufacturer may not be so open with communication, then file unexpected bankruptcy and leave it's customer with no warranty support.
6. NuWa is not going to the Louisville show for two reasons. One, is that "high end" companies such as ours typically do little business at or because of this show, and two is that we are not anxious to sign any new dealers until we have a better picture of the future. The retail market is what we will watch as a barometer of the industry's health.
Hopefully this information clarifies the concerns of some owners and/or NuWa dealers. We can't provide information that we don't know, but we are sensitive to the concerns that exist. There will always be competitors and others who will "misuse" the information that is known. We cannot control what others say, only what we do. MIKE MITCHELL
We had a job in NE OK two week ago and Chanute was on the way so I stopped & talked service about my water pump. If I have time when in Chanute I will and tour the plant. Have not had time since Custom Campers were closed down & moved into the HitchHiker plant. Well as I drove by the plant the parking lot was less than half full more like a third full. So they were were not very busy & very few 5er setting around like a few years ago.
red
JC I retired from Boeing & I heard that story but at Boeing but a new hire was told to drill out a rivet so the new hire got a 50 drill bit & drilled all around the rivet head & drilled the rivet out & left a hole the size of the head.
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