Norcold Shutting Down Operations in US

[FLynes]

https://www.rvtravel.com/norcold-shut-refrigerator-manufacturing-rvt-1077b/

[Tom Cherry]

Thanks for the news.  Not unexpected….as one who had to close, demo, relocate, consolidate, renovate, etc. for a major portion of his career (35 plus site were “emptied”), it happens.  Typically we picked up about half of the displaced domestically, but that climbed to 100% as the wages here went up.

Thetford was, I think, manufacturing the simple wand and flush valve foot pedal dump toilets that came in the 40 ft Camelots in Mexico….Thetford told me that my valve was defective as the Mexican folks had tooling issues….

I seem to recall discussions about components on other devices being classified as import or USA and certain issues were inherent to each.

Sadly…it is leaving…but the Res Refer has dominated the market.  Don’t know what is being used in the TT now…but I thought that most MH were now Res standard….but that is SWAG …

[cbr046]

Could be some of those recalls did them in.  Maybe a few lawsuits, too. 

There's still Dometic, and they aren't a one-appliance company.  Better engineering IMO.

There will always be a need for a non-electric fridge. 

- bob

[Tom Cherry]

3 hours ago, cbr046 said:

Could be some of those recalls did them in.  Maybe a few lawsuits, too. 

There's still Dometic, and they aren't a one-appliance company.  Better engineering IMO.

There will always be a need for a non-electric fridge. 

- bob

I will only say that the Recalls probably did influence the decisions.  BUT, all the decisions that impacted my 35 Plus "DO IT PROJECTS" were driven by management and finance and marketing.  The Recalls are covered by reserves set up by Thetford....obviously charged back to the Norcold division. NOW, having said that, in order to protect Thetford's Bottom Line, someone decided to close shop and move.....  If you do some research, Norcold was formed in 1959....moved to Sydney in 1964. Thetford purchased in 1997.....just about the time things went SOUTH.  Who knows what happened on the manufacturing floor or the Thetford impact.  Thetford was owned by a private capital company.  Then, in 2001, that private equity holding company sold it to another private company.  Figuring that the RV Industry was poised for a phenomenal burst and they would make gazillions.  IT HAPPENS....Trust me....I worked for private capital companies and major Fortune 500 companies.  The decisions made by the private holding companies are more GUT as the management does not have stockholders and analysts asking questions.  They just DO....and one person's comments, if they carry weight, can influence a multimillion dollar decision. I SUSPECT that staffing issues .... workers retiring....as Norcold looks like a "Mid West" enterprise and workers age out and the replacements might not be as knowledgeable.  I do KNOW something about that...,,

SO, a decision was made....sometimes with a 12" high proposal and PowerPoints the quality of a Cecil B. DeMille production....or a napkin where two or three management team members had an "AH HAAAA" discussion over dinner last night....typically a COCKTAIL napkin.  YES, this does happen also.

As to Dometic, it is a publicly traded company....IN SWEDEN....or at least that is what I read...

The Recalls?  The lawyers control them.  I also did a few recalls.....I had a very multidisciplined and diverse and a Heck of a RIDE career.  Never boring.  Always competitive.  Always fluid....

Somewhere....and there are folks here that are more knowledgeable who implied that Norcold changed the thickness of the coils....or at least that was what was posted on the old board. The older Norcold techs, whom I talked to, were pretty honest and straight.  It was a design and materials issue....that was "Value Engineered" and the rest is history...  The Class Action suit limited the losses.....and the onesies and twosies today do not attract a herd of "DO WE SUE EM AND HOW" attorneys....and I don't mean to defame that profession as I raised an attorney....and he is not in private competitive practice...which is good...

[jacwjames]

I am sure some bean counter crunched the numbers, created a very nice power point presentation that was presented to the big wigs and the decision was made.  I'd been involved with a couple of those.  The behind the scenes jockeying can be unreal.  Usually it's the biggest low hard that is listened to. 

I have worked for 3 publicly traded companies and one private.  The public companies, in most cases, are more cautious since they have to deal with the regulatory side of it as far as reporting.   There are pretty heavy consequences for falsifying the information. 

One observation I have is that on this Forum and IRV2 Norcold does not have a good reputation, and in business that says a lot and might have played in the decision.