ELKHART, Ind., March 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- THOR Industries, Inc. (NYSE: THO), the global leader in the recreational vehicle (RV) industry, today announced a strategic organizational restructuring aimed at optimizing its enterprise structure and strengthening its brand portfolio. As part of this realignment, Heartland Recreational Vehicles will now be integrated under Jayco, Inc., enhancing operational efficiencies and streamlining business processes.
Bob Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer of THOR, emphasized the importance of this restructuring in response to industry trends, “Through the current downcycle, our companies focused on appropriate brand rationalization and right-sizing their product lineups to meet the current market conditions and customer demands. This restructuring takes the idea of rationalization for optimization to the next level as we considered the impact of the evolved marketplace in the U.S. RV market, which includes significant dealer consolidation. This move aligns Heartland with Jayco’s proven track record of optimized operations, a strong competitive brand offering, and customer service. As we have previously discussed, Heartland has faced recent challenges in these areas while Jayco, under the leadership of Ken Walters, has demonstrated consistent excellence in each area. Aligning key Heartland brands under the Jayco umbrella creates potential to maximize the performance of those brands. By leveraging Jayco’s expertise, and leaning into Jayco’s support structure, we are confident that Heartland will achieve meaningful performance improvements, delivering greater value to our customers, dealers, and stakeholders,” said Martin.
“Jayco and its brands, which include its Jayco flagship as well as Entegra Coach, Highland Ridge RV, and Starcraft, is synonymous with excellence. That excellence runs from production through the life of a customer’s ownership experience. As we welcome Heartland into the Jayco family, we will ensure the same excellence in the products that Jayco currently offers to the market and also in the relationships that we manage both with our dealers and our retail customers. Importantly, there will be no disruption of the ownership experience of current Heartland owners and dealers. We will work with the Heartland customer service team to ensure the same high standards that we provide to our Jayco customers. We look forward to working with key members of the Heartland team to get those brands back where they belong in the market,” offered Ken Walters, President of Jayco.
As part of the restructuring, certain private label brands manufactured by Heartland will be transferred to Dutchmen Manufacturing, a division of THOR’s subsidiary Keystone RV Company. “Under the leadership of Aaron Young, these private label brands will be under leadership that has proven its ability to deliver private label offerings with strong margins. Consolidating this business with Dutchmen’s current lineup will improve our operating leverage at Dutchmen and empower Dutchmen to continue to provide high quality private label brands previously offered by Heartland,” added Martin.
These moves are expected to provide strategic benefits, including improved synergies across brands, reduced operating costs, enhanced customer service capabilities, and a more efficient distribution strategy to a consolidated dealer base, all of which should drive improved margins for the THOR companies.
“Our goal is to foster a more seamless operational framework that allows us to operate more efficiently and more effectively in the evolving U.S. market,” Martin continued. “This restructuring reflects our dedication to long-term growth, efficiency, and excellence in the RV industry.”
The transition will take place over the coming months, with a focus on ensuring a seamless integration process for employees, dealers, and customers. “Our team members, our Customers, and our dealers can expect a return to the same strong products, service, and innovation that once made Heartland a leading company in the industry,” offered Walters.
About THOR Industries, Inc.
THOR Industries is the sole owner of operating subsidiaries which, combined, represent the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles.
For more information on the Company and its products, please go to www.thorindustries.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes certain statements that are “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are made based on management’s current expectations and beliefs regarding future and anticipated developments and their effects upon THOR, and inherently involve uncertainties and risks. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance. We cannot assure you that actual results will not differ materially from our expectations. Factors which could cause materially different results include, among others: the impact of inflation on the cost of our products as well as on general consumer demand; the effect of raw material and commodity price fluctuations, including the impact of tariffs, and/or raw material, commodity or chassis supply constraints; the impact of war, military conflict, terrorism and/or cyber-attacks, including state-sponsored or ransom attacks; the impact of sudden or significant adverse changes in the cost and/or availability of energy or fuel, including those caused by geopolitical events, on our costs of operation, on raw material prices, on our suppliers, on our independent dealers or on retail customers; the dependence on a small group of suppliers for certain components used in production, including chassis; interest rates and interest rate fluctuations and their potential impact on the general economy and, specifically, on our independent dealers and consumers and our profitability; the ability to ramp production up or down quickly in response to rapid changes in demand while also managing costs and market share; the level and magnitude of warranty and recall claims incurred; the ability of our suppliers to financially support any defects in their products; the financial health of our independent dealers and their ability to successfully manage through various economic conditions; legislative, regulatory and tax law and/or policy developments including their potential impact on our independent dealers, retail customers or on our suppliers; the costs of compliance with governmental regulation; the impact of an adverse outcome or conclusion related to current or future litigation or regulatory investigations; public perception of and the costs related to environmental, social and governance matters; legal and compliance issues including those that may arise in conjunction with recently completed transactions; lower consumer confidence and the level of discretionary consumer spending; the impact of exchange rate fluctuations; restrictive lending practices which could negatively impact our independent dealers and/or retail consumers; management changes; the success of new and existing products and services; the ability to maintain strong brands and develop innovative products that meet consumer demands; the ability to efficiently utilize existing production facilities; changes in consumer preferences; the risks associated with acquisitions, including: the pace and successful closing of an acquisition, the integration and financial impact thereof, the level of achievement of anticipated operating synergies from acquisitions, the potential for unknown or understated liabilities related to acquisitions, the potential loss of existing customers of acquisitions and our ability to retain key management personnel of acquired companies; a shortage of necessary personnel for production and increasing labor costs and related employee benefits to attract and retain production personnel in times of high demand; the loss or reduction of sales to key independent dealers, and stocking level decisions of our independent dealers; disruption of the delivery of units to independent dealers or the disruption of delivery of raw materials, including chassis, to our facilities; increasing costs for freight and transportation; the ability to protect our information technology systems from data breaches, cyber-attacks and/or network disruptions; asset impairment charges; competition; the impact of losses under repurchase agreements; the impact of the strength of the U.S. dollar on international demand for products priced in U.S. dollars; general economic, market, public health and political conditions in the various countries in which our products are produced and/or sold; the impact of changing emissions and other related climate change regulations in the various jurisdictions in which our products are produced, used and/or sold; changes to our investment and capital allocation strategies or other facets of our strategic plan; and changes in market liquidity conditions, credit ratings and other factors that may impact our access to future funding and the cost of debt.
These and other risks and uncertainties are discussed more fully in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2025 and in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended July 31, 2024.
We disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this release or to reflect any change in our expectations after the date hereof or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based, except as required by law.
