abe1759ca
Van. B.C., Canada
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you have all these rv manufactures going down how come you hear nothing about forrest river? must be a lot of backup there.
abe.
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Dutch_12078
Great Sacandaga Lake, NY
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Warren Buffet found enough spare change in his Forest River pocket to buy Coachmen's RV division, so they must not be faring too badly at the moment.
Dutch
'95 Coachmen Catalina 322XL
F-53 chassis, 460 V8
Bigfoot EZE-Leveler jacks
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fredbon
Pacific Northwest or SoCal
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Check back in 2010 and see who is left.
Fred
Fred and Bonnie
Frankie & Sun Yao Ting, (The Cats)
2005 Dolphin LX 6375
2006 Saturn VUE
As I've Matured... I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
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pulsar
Lewisville, NC
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Moved from Technology Corner.
2002 Adventurer 32V - Workhorse chassis
1998 CRV toad - manual transmission
Have you seen the RV.Net Blogs? You can subscribe at Blog.RV.Net
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Pawz4me
North Carolina
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Forest River (and now Coachmen) are owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Which is owned by Warren Buffet. That's some deep pockets. The recent acquisition of Coachmen seems to indicate to me that Buffet intends to stay in the RV business.
Me and the DH 
Two boys and two dogs (and two cats who prefer to stay home)
2008 Forest River Georgetown 350DS (bunkhouse model)
2001 Honda CR-V
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mudmaker
Iowa
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He just threw some money at Harley Davidson too I think. No sense in just letting it pile up and get moldy.
Glen and Loretta
Marc, Jake, and Kirsten
Coachmen Futura 2000 2980 FK
08 Saturn Vue
01 GMC Sierra ext sportside 4x4
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tatest
Oklahoma
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As one of the smaller subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway, Forest River doesn't have to rely on the shaky confidence of market speculators on slim margins, or frightened bankers, for operating cash.
With the CEO holding 38% of Berkshire Hathaway stock, and other board members holding most of the rest, the parent corporation is not so subject to market whims, so that Warren Buffet is pretty much in the position Henry Ford was in from the '20s to the '50s, he can do whatever he wants with his business, which amounts mostly to using the float from Geico to buy big interests (in many cases 100%) in whatever Mr. Buffet thinks has potential for future earnings.
If you pay attention to what Berkshire Hathaway is doing lately, they've been bailing out of troubled banks, and retailers like CarMax, Home Depot, Lowes, but hanging on to WalMart, and increasing his interest in basic industries (like GE) and energy companies (like COP) that have been taken down by a falling market to prices way below intrinsic value.
The purchase of Coachmen's RV business (basically adding brands to the Forest River collection, but not physical plant, debt, or workforce costs) suggests that Berkshire Hathaway thinks the RV industry, consumer grade at least, has a future on the other side of a recession, and the Coachmen brands will be marketable.
So why doesn't someone buy out other RV companies with stocks that are pennies on the dollar? It might be that those particular companies are burdened with debts that exceed several years future earnings, that they are in market segments that were never very profitable, or the brands don't have value commensurate with the debt that comes along with them. I.E., let them shed the debt through bankruptcy, then think about buying whatever value is left in the name.
Tom Test
Itasca Spirit 29B
2001 Ranger Edge
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retiredbump
New Hampshire
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Tatest,that is one of the best posting I've read in a long time. Lots of solid info without a load of opinion and guessing. Hope others follow for lead. Thanks
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Glen41
North Texas
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Heck I just want Warren Buffet to adopt me
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AstroRig57
near Tehachapi, CA
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tatest wrote: The purchase of Coachmen's RV business (basically adding brands to the Forest River collection, but not physical plant, debt, or workforce costs) suggests that Berkshire Hathaway thinks the RV industry, consumer grade at least, has a future on the other side of a recession, and the Coachmen brands will be marketable.
You are wrong in this regard. Forest River did not merely buy the Coachmen Brand or pay $44 million merely for the Coachmen "name".
Forest River did, in fact, acquire Coachmen's RV plants including Coachmen’s main Middlebury, Indiana manufacturing complex and the Viking manufacturing facility in Centreville, Michigan, accounts payable, accounts receivable, finished product (both at the plants and in the dealer network), unfinished product, raw materials, including raw motorized chassis (and obligations on same), and warranty obligations. This was not merely a "paper transaction" but the purchase of an entire product line and manufacturing network. Most of the Coachmen RV Group employees were retained by Forest River. Coachmen RV Group will be operated as a separate division of Forest River whose operating groups include recreational vehicles, cargo trailers, boats, commercial vehicles, buses, and modular housing.
Following the transaction, and as early as January 5, the Coachmen RV Group had restarted production on their lines (which had been idled for the holidays), including one that makes ultralight trailers and that had been idle for several months. As a concerned Coachmen owner, I made contact with numerous people involved with Coachmen including management with the Coachmen RV Group, officials with the Coachmen Owners Association, and was even contacted by a Vice President with Coachmen Industries (after the RV Group was sold) and all assured me it would be business as usual with the Coachmen RV Group and that it would be a stronger brand as a result of the transaction.
Coachmen Industries has always been a rather transparent company in regard to releasing complete and timely information about the corporation and many details, press releases, and SEC filings regarding the sale of the RV group to Forest River can be found on their website. Forest River, on the other hand, has always held things close to their chest revealing little about their operations.
A few details on the transaction can be found here:
Coachmen - Letter to Shareholders
2005 31' Coachmen Freelander 3150SS, Stargazer II - Mobile Astronomy Unit
Do you remember when the sky was dark, and the stars were bright?
The International Dark-Sky Association
American by birth...Scottish by the Grace Of God.
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