Thor buys Tiffin

[Doug Hoegh]

Not much else to say

[willbo777]

OMG

[RobsMarquis]

Looks like they walked away with 300 mil... after they paid the lines of credit and debt? 

[Diane M.]

Here is an article on the sale

THOR Industries Acquires Tiffin Motorhomes for $300M - RVBusiness - Breaking RV Industry News

[throgmartin]

I ran into Bob this spring and could see he was tired. I didn't come out and ask him if he was going to retire but I know he has slowed down alot. He retired several years ago and his son took it over. He ran the company into the ditch and Bob had to come back out of retirement to save the company. I find it interesting his kids will stay on and work for Thor. You can assume Thor will keep a very tight rein on the kids.

I am pretty sure Thor made the purchase for the company and assets. I am going to assume Bob had to retire his own debt and did not walk away with $ 300 Million. Nobody knows the numbers for Tiffin sales as it is a privately held company. But we all will get an idea once Thor has had Tiffin for a year.

Here is another kicker - Girard just built a brand new factory across the street from Tiffin mainly because Tiffin went to all Girard assemblies. Thor is standardized on Carefree & Dometic assemblies with their other RV brands. So it will be interesting to see what happens with Girard and the deal they made with Bob. Girard didn't pay cash for that massive factory so this could end up really hurting Girard.

 

[thomasgibbens]

Sad news!  Tiffin will be on the demise under Thor. 

[Pampero]

Like Google and many other corporations.
They buy the competition, they get rid of the "unnecessary" people that do duplicate work, blue collar, marketing, etcetera.

Yes, Thorn will cut corners, people will loose their job, and another CEO will make a ton of money.

[hitechpete]

Surely, everyone has the right to retire at the end of a long career working more hours than most people, and reap the rewards of that work. Good luck to him!

[Bob Nodine]

Reminds me of an age old phenomenon. A hard working individual starts a company and grows it into a very prosperous business and as long as that individual stays alive the company grows and stays prosperous. That individual did not start the company with making money as the main goal and has blood, sweat, tears, and many long hours invested. When that individual dies or steps down and the company goes to someone else, even children, the company usually goes into decline. The company will most definitely not be customer friendly anymore if the company goes public because the most important people will be the stockholders. The CEO and board of directors will bend over backwards to make profit for the stockholders.

Just my opinion and observations.

 

[Chargerman]

24 minutes ago, hitechpete said:

Surely, everyone has the right to retire at the end of a long career working more hours than most people, and reap the rewards of that work. Good luck to him!

Totally agree. On top of it he was certainly not just a CEO. He founded the company and with dedication, commitment, a ton of risk and most of all he gave a large part of his life to that company. He deserves every dollar he got and all the best to him.the tough part for him will be seeing his company change dramatically how it is run. When it’s your baby that’s a tough this to deal with. 

[throgmartin]

Bob Tiffin is a charismatic man and God placed him into a career that best suited him. Over the years I have seen " Uncle Bob " do some crazy things for his customers. When one of his customers had his coach totaled from a head on collision Bob called the owner to check on him and his family and then gave him a new bus for the insurance settlement price ( way under dealer cost ). He once asked a customer at their service center how he liked his new Phaeton and the customer told him I love it except for the chair. It is uncomfortable. Bob told him to go pick out a new one and he would pay for it. These are just some of the exmaples of what made Bob a superstar with his customers. He was always on the front lines, wandering all over, meeting customers, talking and listening to their complaints if they had them. He reminds me a lot of the old Sam Walton. I knew many of his staff members and they all said the same thing - awesome good old boy to work for.

I don't begrudge any business owner who sells out and walks away with a pocket full of money. Ingrid and I own 4 companies and we know the headaches involved. It is a 24/7 job. It consumes your life, it dictates your schedule and destroys free time constantly. I just calculated that in the last 5 years we have put 30,000 miles on our coach. Out of that 30,000 miles 400 were for pleasure, the rest for business. I am not complaining as this is the life we selected. Dave Pratt and I have a running joke - We don't own businesses, they own us.

I personally do not like consolidation in an industry. It drives prices up, drops consumer choices, lessens quality in a given product, hurts customer service and in some cases stymies innovation. This can be seen already in the RV industry where there is a race for the bottom in quality. Never in the history of RV'ing has quality been so bad as it is now. The manufacturers have concentrated their efforts on glitz while ignoring overall build quality.

In regards to Thor I have been shocked by what they have done to Entegra since they took it over. They have actually fixed a lot of the quality issues. Maybe they will do the same with Tiffin and believe me Tiffin has quality issues which is why Red Bay was a favorite destination of Tiffin owners.

[Guest Ray Davis]

 This topic is on other forums too.   Over on RV.Net ( Good Sam )   there is an interesting thread .   A tech ( Doug )  is on there with his perspective, interesting.

  RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Class A Motorhomes: Tiffin Acquired by Thor for 300mil.

[Dr4Film]

One of my best friends first owned an 43 foot Allegro Bus for a number of years then traded it in for a secondhand Zephyr. Over the years he has told me about all of the stuff Bob Tiffin had done to both of his coaches for FREE. It was unbelievable and this was only one of many customers Tiffin had.

That type of customer service will be gone now that Bob has given up the company.

May he enjoy many years of retirement as he has earned it.