Amadas Purchases Featherlite,Inc.

[Jim Skiff]

I just received this from Shannon Adams:

Click Here to link to press release.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

That seems a natural fit. They both catered to the Nascar crowd.

Go fast and turn left

[garyde]

Mystery solved. Its about time. I was wondering when the other shoe would drop regarding Featherlite. This company has been on the block for a long while now. Hopefully Amadas can give stability to this Brand. If you recall, last year Featherlite was heavily discounting, read; dumping, Prevosts on the market. This brought values down for everyone.

[bonhall41]

I hope this gives the company some much-needed stability. I also hope that it doesn't negatively affect the value of the coaches that some of us own. I don't know much about Amadas so don't know how all this will shake out. I imagine when we get the official word from Featherlite, it will be with a very positive spin. Of course, at this point, we're most concerned about service issues. We'll probably see how they handle these issues before too long.

Bonnie

[jack14r]

I was in Mocksville,NC at the old Featherlite sales and service center last month and one of their old employees who works for a trailer repair company now told me that Featherlite would not make it past December,they had 28 new coaches in inventory,and they had not sold a new coach from inventory in months,I guess he was right.He also confirmed that they had sent back to Prevost 3 or 4 shells.The Press release did not state that Amadas purchased the Manufacturing facility or the finished coaches,it did state that the Featherlite will have a sales center in Florida,I would bet that they will blow out all of the inventory ASAP.Most of us knew that the current climate could take out any manufacturer in this industry,I hope that this is the last one and the remaining converters get stronger.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Be prepared for another round of ridiculous prices on new coaches. Nobody can afford to sit on that much inventory so it can be expected that pricing will be at distress sale levels, and just like the last time that was done there will be a ripple effect that will drag the entire market down with it.

This can be sugar coated, but the bottom line is that Vantare or Featherlite was losing lots of money and the net result can be the infliction of a lot of pain to not only the existing converters, but to owners who will see their coach value drop further. It is going to take years for this industry to get healthy, and until then my guess is that coach values are going to be depressed, which is good news for buyers.

If a converter needs to get $1,400,000 for a new coach they are selling, it will be very difficult for them to justify why they need to get that much when a bunch of brand new coaches are going out the door for $900,000. This is where brand loyalty comes into play and it may be the only thing that keeps some converters alive. Just my opinion.

[flyu2there]

Those who were in Pahrump earlier in the year will remember the Teschner Coach, believe it was a double slide 40 and quite well done. I recall Ms Techner stating to a group of us that we could drive it home for something in the vicinity of 1.4 million...............today they have that same coach advertised at 850k and I would suspect there is wiggle room in that!

The really brave could garner a controlling interest in Monoco Coach for a shade under 7 million, last year the stock was trading in the low teens and two years ago it was in the mid twenties. Buy it, find a way to get into the TARP, double you money when it hit 1.00 and run....just a thought

[hhoppe]

When I saw Dave Wall in October in Reno at a Liberty sponsored event I explained how happy I was to be out of the two bus club. He said " How would you like to be in the 37 bus club " I sure hope all the converters make it through this period of great uncertainty. I was born in the middle of a depression and I hope I don't have to die in one.
You all have a Merry Christmas.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

John,

You may be suggesting the purchase of Monaco in jest, but that is exactly what may happen. I bought a number of businesses when times were tough and the assets could be had very inexpensively.

I don't know if Monaco has a halo product, but knowing manufacturing I'll bet they have some very expensive assets. The bad news is those assets are likely mortgaged to the hilt. The good news is the secured creditor is usually realistic and does not want to run an RV manufacturing business. Owning the controlling interest is a waste of money. Owning the assets used to produce the product, especially if purchased inexpensively puts you in business for pennies on the dollar.

The problem today is the reason everybody is in distress is RVs are toys, and toys (especially expensive ones) are the first things people stop buying or owning. The key to success in this is to buy the assets on the very day the economy roars back to life. Problem is my calendar does a lousy job of predicting the future.

[flyu2there]

Ok Jon,

I'll go half if you will!!