Forest City-based Winnebago Industries is reporting fiscal second-quarter net income of just more than $17-million, a drop of 20% compared to the same quarter last year for the outdoor lifestyle manufacturer.
Company CEO Michael Happe says despite this week’s announcement to suspend operations at the Winnebago, Grand Design RV, Newmar, and Chris-Craft boat factories until April 12th, the company is in a good position financially to deal with the impacts of COVID-19.
“Prior to this evolving situation, the trends that we’ve seen indicate that the RV industry conditions have been showing signs of improvement,” Happe says. “We are realizing the benefits of having a diverse portfolio and relentless focus on improving operational efficiency across the organization.” While the near term may be uncertain for everyone, going forward, Happe says Winnebago is in “a great position to extend its recent track record of outperforming whatever the broader RV market is over the longer term.”
Happe says the company continues to capture a bigger market share of RV sales across the continent. “Our North American RV share is now 13.2% on a trailing three-month basis through January, including an increase of 1.8 organic percentage points over the same period last year,” Happe says. “We are pleased with our ability to outperform the RV market and expect we will continue to do so in the coming quarters.”
Happe says motor home sales in the second quarter were boosted by the recently-acquired Newmar brand. “Second-quarter motorhome segment revenues were up 97.7% over the prior-year period, driven by a full quarter of contribution from Newmar, and strong Winnebago-branded ‘Class B’ sales,” he says. “Excluding Newmar, organic revenue growth in the segment was 13.6% over last year.” Overall revenue for the company during the second quarter was $626.8 million compared to $432.7 million in the same period last year.
(By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)