Grand Design RV will begin building motorhomes in late fiscal year 2024 for the first time in its 12-year history.
That announcement was made by Winnebago Industries CEO Michael Happe, who spoke to investors and analysts on a conference call Wednesday following the release of the company’s recent quarterly and full fiscal year earnings.
“Today also marks another milestone in our company’s history as we are excited to announce the forthcoming launch of a Grand Design branded motorhome lineup,” Happe said. “These new models will … be a differentiated and complementary offering to our current Winnebago and Newmar brand motorized businesses.
“We anticipate showcasing prototype models to select dealers in early calendar 2024 with shipments beginning late in our fiscal 2024 year. As we are currently active in product development, standing up the manufacturing infrastructure and our supply chain network and beginning to engage potential dealers for distribution of this new strategy, we wanted to confirm today the increasing positive chatter and rumors in the marketplace.
“In the coming months, we look forward to the Grand Design team sharing more details about our premium product offerings from Grand Design Motorhome. It is also important to note that the leader and one of the founding partners of the Grand Design business, Don Clark, has recently agreed to a 5-year employment extension with Winnebago Industries as well. Grand Design was founded in 2012 by Clark and brothers Ron and Bill Fenech, all industry veterans, and it subsequently became a part of Winnebago Industries.”
Winnebago reported revenue for this past fiscal year of $3.5 billion, a decrease of 29.6% from the $5 billion in fiscal 2022.
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Might be late to the starting line. Higher interest rates are coming to a financial institution near you.
Interesting. Winnebago hasn’t even been successful in getting it’s long awaited and promised Journey motorhome back into production for almost three years…and now they are kicking off more motorhomes in their towables brand?
The RV industry is a different animal. Usually in acquisitions the companies merge as an entity. They consolidate operations to cut costs and share technology, supply chain operations, etc. The RV industry, by what I’ve seen and read, continues to operate all the acquisitions like independent businesses. Makes no sense to me from an operations or cost standpoint.
It’s not like there aren’t already enough motorhomes to choose from. And supposedly, RV sales have been slumping lately. I wouldn’t think now would be a good time to start a new ‘business’, but that’s just my laymen’s point of view.
Winnebago is not dumb. I see two possibilities. One is they see an open niche in the market that nobody is addressing. The other is that it will allow them to enter markets with motorized units where current Winnebago dealer territory agreements are not working as well as they want. Time will tell.
Yeah sure. They should fix their production problems on their towables first, but…
Great. A motorhome where cabinets fall off the walls, customers are treated as non existent entities the day after they forked over their hard earned money, and glitter always blinds poor quality and workmanship. Admittedly, I have no first hand experience with GD, but have yet to meet a Grand Design customer who is satisfied with the unit they bought in the past 5 years. Only tales of abuse at the hands of dealers and the manufacturer. They need to fix their quality and service issues before they endanger customers by producing something they actually ride in.
Nice to meet you. Bought a 5th Wheel GD Reflection. Am pleased to date with Quality & Workmanship. In fact would purchase GD again, have not had any issues with Dealer, nor Salesperson. Like said > would Purchase GD again.
NO ties to MFR., Dealer, Salesperson > Just a Happy Consumer!!
I stand corrected, then. This after getting an earful from 3 recent GD owners on their trial and tribulations. Glad you had an excellent experience and hope to hear of many more.
Greetings! GD owner and full-timer for 7 years. We are pleased with our 5th wheel, the company and their Customer Service team. No regrets!
Another happy Grand Design owner. Mines a 2019. Have had very minor issues with it. That said, I have seen reports of quality issues on the Grand Design forums of late.
I’m the happy owner of a 2021 GD 310GK. Pretty happy with the quality.
I am curious, as to just what Winnebago’s investors have identified, as the market niche that needed a GD motorhome to fill?
This is odd. I wonder where they are going to slot the GD motorhome? Isn’t GD having some QC problems? Seems at least a YouTuber or two has talked about their quality “challenges” recently. Maybe those are outliers and not the average. I am curious to see how many models, how fueled, and what standard features and options.