Host: Forest City just 30 miles to the east celebrates another American original, the RV.
Roger Martin: Winnebago was started in 1958. We’re located here in Forest City, Iowa which rest on the banks of the Winnebago River and Winnebago County and we got started by a group of local businessman headed by our founder John K. Hanson who said, they wanted to build some economy or build the economics of the market here in Forest City, Iowa, so that they were decent jobs that weren’t agricultural dependent. And so, they built this company from nothing. Starting in 1958, they would employ over 4100 people in this company.
The RV industry overall is a substantially larger institute and a lot of people actually believe. Winnebago is the largest manufacturer of motorhomes, both Class A motorhomes and Class C motorhomes with nearly 20% of the business coming our way and all of those motorhomes are built in Iowa. We’ll build about this year about 12,500 motorhomes again which is quite a few more than what people think. And so, we’re building 250 a week or so and the whole process is very complex but having done it done for another 50 years. I kind of got the hang of it. but they’re getting more and more complex with things like slide rooms like the room that I am sitting in now which extends the width to the motorhome by 30 inches of by the appliances and the fixtures and the entertainment devices that you’ll find in our motorhomes, whether it’s TV or satellite radio of those sorts of thing. It’s got all the comfort and conveniences of home, so it’s kind of like building both a car and a home at the same time.
Our motorhomes are built on automotive chassis and so the first thing you’ll see is a bare chassis and then we build the home on top of that chassis so that the vehicle portion of the product is the first thing which worked on and all the sub structures added to that chassis. The second thing that comes on this is the coat itself or the home portion of the product and into that, we will build the walls and the roof. And then once we got that processed, then we add all the interior components, whether it’s the furniture of the appliances, televisions, lighting, all that sort of thing will come in, that’s actually the last part of the process.
You know, I think the biggest change in our industry has been the variety that we offer in products, initially when we started building motorhome. Virtually, there were all about the same, maybe three different lengths but today, we’ve got an excess of 100 different models and within each of those models have got different interior appointments that we can find your own suitable colors, ensue your personal taste and those might vary by region of the country. So, the biggest change in our industry is variety. One of the other big changes we’ve seen in our industry is how people use our motorhome. People have a number of hobbies and activities they like to pursue and they use the motorhome to pursue that hobby or activity, whether it’s going fishing or going golfing or going to a motor sports event or going to horse and dog show, our customers are using this motorhome to support a hobby or activity they’re already got.
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