RV Business
Friday, April 4, 2008

Middlebury, Ind.-based Jayco Corp., the holding company for Jayco Inc., Starcraft RV and other subsidiaries, announced late Thursday (April 3) that it had acquired certain assets of the former Travel Supreme Corp., including raw materials, equipment and the 160,000-square-foot production facility in Wakarusa, Ind. The agreement was signed earlier that day. Other purchase details were not disclosed.

Jayco Corp. reported that it has established a new subsidiary, Entegra Coach Inc., that will begin immediately to hire workers and hopes to start production of two luxury fifth-wheel lines and three diesel-powered Class A motorhome lines by the end of this month.

Glenn Troyer, former president of Travel Supreme, has been appointed president of Entegra Coach, and a new management team is being organized. Other former white collar and blue collar employees of Travel Supreme will be hired in the coming weeks, and the new company hopes to reach employment of up to 125 workers within the first year, said Sid Johnson, director of marketing for Jayco Inc.

With the asset purchase, Jayco re-enters the Class A motorhome market, which it left in 2002 after disappointing results. The fifth-wheel products also represent a price-point sector in which Jayco has never participated, Johnson said.

“The best time to get involved in a situation like this is when the market is down,” said Johnson. “We feel we will be able to do well in both segments.”

In reference to Jayco’s previous venture into the Class A business, Johnson noted: “The difference in this case, we’re not starting from scratch. We can pretty much hit the ground running. We have the advantage of knowledgeable personnel working on these projects. The intellectual properties we acquired give us a relative leg up on production and materials. We think we have an advantage going in, especially with the expertise of the people involved.”

Johnson said the sales team for Entegra Coach “will be charged with the responsibility of building an entire different dealer body from Jayco and Starcraft.”

Johnson explained the origin of the word “Entegra,” which Jayco created for its new product. “We believe it speaks to two things: Jayco’s commitment to operating in the RV business with integrity, even though we used an ‘E’ instead of an ‘I.’ And secondly, we think it is a good name to represent an RV company that operates in the luxury or upscale side of the business.”

Jayco Corp. held a solid third-place ranking in travel trailer and combined travel trailer and fifth-wheel retail sales in January, according to the latest report from Statistical Surveys Inc. (SSI) of Grand Rapids, Mich. In January, Jayco held 8.7% of the combined market, 10% of the travel trailer market and 6.4% of the fifth-wheel market.