Recreational vehicle manufacturing giant Winnebago isn’t making much progress on decreasing its massive backlog of RV orders.
In October 2021, Winnebago officials announced that they had $4 billion in backlog orders as supply chain issues coupled with a massive number of new orders.
The company announced in its recent 2022 second-quarter earnings report that its backlog of orders has now grown to $4.37 billion as the demand for RVs refuses to wane.
Revenues for all segments of Winnebago’s business (towable RVs, motorhomes and boats) are all up. The company saw $1.2 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2022 alone – a nearly 29% increase compared to the same period last year.
Winnebago President and CEO Mike Happe pointed to a still-growing customer demand for its product along with the supply chain woes for the increase in the order backlog. He said the backlog breaks down to $1.87 billion for towable RVs, $2.21 billion for Winnebago motorhomes, and $278,000 for its marine products.
Happe said he expects the backlog to continue to plague RV production as the supply chain woes stretch through the rest of 2022.
Winnebago isn’t alone. Thor Industries reported an $18.07 billion order backlog when it reported earlier that its dealer network may not be fully restocked until the end of 2023.
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Josh the RV Nerd on YouTube explained this from his point of view as an RV salesman. He says that RV dealers massively over-order in times like this to try to improve their chances of getting anything to sell. As proof, he said that one large dealer had already cancelled $2B in backorders as their lots fill back up. This backlog may not be indicative of actual demand. Good news if you’ve already got an RV and are wondering how bad the competition for reservations will be.
Saw the same video, and it makes perfect sense! Also, as far as I know the old rule of depreciation still holds true when you drive off the dealer lot. I am starting to see more 2 and 3 year old RVs showing up on Craigslist where I live. I wonder what we will be talking about next year?
Not sure how this data is generated, but it’s super-suspect IMHO. We’re in the final stages of a 6 month trip that has taken us to almost every State in the Southern half of the country. We have yet to see a single RV dealership without a FULL lot of RVs. My betting is that manufacturers and dealers haven’t yet caught on to a dip in demand, and are overstocking. Which is going to very soon result in prices for both new and used rigs to go into the tank. Foresight is such a rare commodity… 🙁
Back log, poppycock! There is a major correction comming soon, that will evaporate like a rain puddle on a sunny low humidity day in North Dakota.
Backlog of Orders???
Where are the RV dealers going to put em all when those new orders are all built and delivered?
Drive by ANY RV dealer today and these RV retailer lot’s are already totally filled with new RV’s, Used RV’s and those RV’s in for service.
Sounds to me like the RV manufacturer’s Chief Financial Officer’s are “Cookin the Books” when it comes to financial reporting for the benefit of Wall Street Investors and themselves.
There are not that many ****** RV BUYER’S left that are going to finance and overpay for an RV in our current and future ******* economy!
Gee how about $5.00 a gallon gas which will probably go higher and be with us for years.
Bubbles always burst. I thought this one was in its final days in December–before gas went up.
Bad news for Winnebago! The more backlogs they have, the more hurried the assembly line will get, and the more quality control will suffer. I’m planning to buy a Winnie later this year and have been worried about how well built the units coming off the line will be and how delayed the warranty repair service backlog will become. If there were a Chilton’s repair manual available for RV models I’d do the service myself, but alas…