Bluebird/Wanderlodge split
:( I am hearing rumors that Wanderlodge is being sold off to Complete Coach Works out of Riverside, CA. It makes me sad in that it is just another in a line of resales of a once fine name in the coach industry. The Luce brothers sold the company in 1999 and it has passed through several ownerships since then. During one evolution the same people who owned Bluebird owned Prevost. I watched this company lose it's way on basic leadership and quality assurance. With each change the bean counters got rid of the middle management institutional memory that knew how to do stuff and started replacing the work force with new hires.
It is particularly disturbing to me since I know some of the guys who are still there--the loyal few--and really fine people. Their work load has increased to the point of inundation. The first and second level management tier was replaced by a bunch of goobers.
This last bunch that has bird, Cerberus, evidently felt the nessecity to sell off the unprofitable portion, Wanderlodge. That is what they do as a corporation and it is now clear to me that it was the intent all along despite what they were saying. If Wanderlodge doesn't do well in this iteration I feel it will be a goner. I know quite a few of us former Bluebird people who came to Prevost because we lost confidence in the parent corporation.
It is sorta like watching a small southern town take fifty years to die.
The new company, CCW: I don't think they would have the throw weight to buy Wanderlodge and run Wanderlodge on their own. It appears they are located right in a hotbed of Fleetwood stuff. This is just a WAG on my part without anything else to back it up. I think Wanderlodge may end up being a Fleetwood. The indignity of it all!
Then again, I am just a dumb old southern boy retired Marine and not a business man. What do I know.
As some of you may know I had an 86 bird that in retrospect might have been the best coach I ever had and an 04 M380 that was marginal. The quality assurance difference between the two was like night and day.
All the newer management teams could never understand there was a loyal customer base who demanded quality and were willing to pay for it.
As an aside, old rumor has it that Harvey Mitchell of Parliament was in the loop to buy the name and at one time he was looking to buy the parts stock.
I do wish that had worked out.
Trivia of the week:
Ceberus, who now also has Chrysler;
In Greek mythology, Cerberus or Kerberos (Greek Κέρβερος, Kerberos, "demon of the pit") was the hound of Hades, a monstrous three-headed dog (sometimes said to have 50 or 100 heads). Cerberus guarded the gate to Hades and ensured that spirits of the dead could enter, but none could exit.
