Escape Travel Trailers is being sold...for the second time in less than five years

[ScubaRx]

Looks like ETI (Escape Travel Trailers) is about to be sold ... again.

Their President is “leaving”...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCmIuseIyFY

and they’re looking for a replacement...
https://ca.linkedin.com/jobs/view/president-at-escape-trailer-industries-3643364914

There is a 9 page thread on their forum...

https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f20/karl-says-goodbye-24829.html

[HDRider]

I wonder if this related to the RV downturn?

[MAX Burner]

Those RV'ers entering into the camping community during the C-19 debacle are no longer interested in camping saturating the used market by selling their 2-year old rigs - softening the pre-owned market and driving down first-time RV buyers, IMO.

[SeaDawg]

So, KV is looking for a president to "prepare the company to be sold..."

Hmm, sounds like a temporary position.

[John E Davies]

FYI, this is about a firearms company, not about firearms per se. 

How America’s Oldest Gun Maker Went Bankrupt: A Financial Engineering Mystery When a secretive private equity firm bought Remington, sales were strong and the future bright. A decade later, the company couldn’t escape its debts.

I am sure we could perhaps maybe draw some comparisons.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Mountainman198]

8 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

Looks like ETI (Escape Travel Trailers) is about to be sold ... again.

Their President is “leaving”...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCmIuseIyFY

and they’re looking for a replacement...
https://ca.linkedin.com/jobs/view/president-at-escape-trailer-industries-3643364914

There is a 9 page thread on their forum...

https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f20/karl-says-goodbye-24829.html

Watched the video.  If you focus only on his hands and arms, there is a lot being said which is not spoken.  Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[SeaDawg]

I noticed this morning that Escape is no longer accepting applications for a new president on LinkedIn. 

 

[MAX Burner]

AS may buy them to get into the molded fiberglass RV market...

[Rolind]

Do you think airstream is going to take another run at fiberglass? The airstream nest was a great fiberglass trailer but was abandoned by airstream pretty quickly.

[ScubaRx]

1 hour ago, Rolind said:

Do you think airstream is going to take another run at fiberglass? The airstream nest was a great fiberglass trailer but was abandoned by airstream pretty quickly.

 

1 hour ago, MAX Burner said:

AS may buy them to get into the molded fiberglass RV market...

Well, you know Airstream tried that when they bought Robert Johans original concept design for The Nest. He actually became the project manager on the Nest product development team at Airstream after the sale. The trailer was only manufactured for about 2 years and they dropped it, never publicly giving a reason.

I stepped inside one that was on display at the Hiawassee Rally several years ago. The thing that sticks in my memory most was how HOT it was inside. It was like being inside a glass house in Mississippi in July.

I would be really surprised if Airstream tried that venture again.

[SeaDawg]

53 minutes ago, ScubaRx said:

 

Well, you know Airstream tried that when they bought Robert Johans original concept design for The Nest. He actually became the project manager on the Nest product development team at Airstream after the sale. The trailer was only manufactured for about 2 years and they dropped it, never publicly giving a reason.

I stepped inside one that was on display at the Hiawassee Rally several years ago. The thing that sticks in my memory most was how HOT it was inside. It was like being inside a glass house in Mississippi in July.

I would be really surprised if Airstream tried that venture again.

I totally agree.

And, if, on the slim chance  Airstream did, and it followed the same stream as the Nest purchase, there would likely  be a bunch of great folks in Chilliwack without jobs in a year or two. 

(They've tried fiberglass over the years, even before NEST. )  My bet is, they stay in their lane, this time. https://www.airstream.com/blog/nest-isnt-airstreams-first-foray-into-fiberglass/  (The Nest was the only foray into fiberglass, under Thor ownership. )

My hope for Escape, and their employees, is that a local Canadian company buys them out. 

There's room for all of us in the market. 

[ScubaRx]

If I were an Escape owner, I would be about to poop a squealing worm. If I had one on order, I'd cancel it. Escape did away with their own service department under the current leadership. Even if you need warranty work, you've got to find a placed and get it done elsewhere. The also went to some weird form of lottery where if you won, you could cancel your existing order and take the 'Inventory Trailer' du jour that week at whatever price it would have sold for. No choices of colors, options, anything. But, you could get it today instead of waiting until your due date which at that time was about 26 months out. I doubt they're still doing that. The company is presently owned by the hedge fund company KV Private Equity Fund I.

Here's a copy of a post on the Escape Forum:

After reading comments about Inventory Units as well as learning the lead times for new orders have dramatically shortened I wondered who KV Capital- the owner of Escape Trailers is and found some interesting facts.

The original company was formed in 2006 and engaged in Mortgage Lending. their name back then was The Mortgage Corner. In 2010 they rebranded as KV Capital.
This was their business until 2017 when they started KV Private Equity Fund I.

In May 2017 they bought Northern Lite.
In October 2017 they bought Off Grid Trailers.
In July 2018 they bought Escape Trailer.
In October 2018 they bought Campion Boats.

In August 2022 they shut down Campion Boats and liquidated all the equipment and supplies and listed the land and 104,000 sq.ft. building for 14.9 Million. KV Capital says they have plans to re-locate the business and resume building boats under the Campion nameplate through a contract manufacturing arrangement with an as-yet undetermined partner.

In September 2022 KV Capital divests Northern Lite & Off Grid Trailers to Tri-West Capital-founded in 1998 and has a much larger portfolio of Funds with some 28 different companies across a wide range of industries.
https://triwest.ca/portfolio/

So what about Escape Trailer's prospects? Seems like the Mortgage Lending Business is falling significantly- From PR Newswire:
"Lenders issued a total of 1,518,933 residential mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2022 - the lowest number since the first quarter of 2014. The latest figure was down 24.5 percent from 2,010,609 in the third quarter of 2022 and down 55.2 percent from 3,390,801 in the fourth quarter of 2021.Mar 2, 2023."

I see KV Capital re-launched their Residential Mortgage Brokering in 2021 and in 2022 divested 3 of the 4 Recreational products mfg's they purchased in 2017/2018.
https://www.kvcapital.ca/about

Although it is an extremely poor strategy, we can "hope" that somehow the workers will survive somehow.