RVBusiness, March/April 2020

our customers to figure out what they want Its a big step Nelson Delivers an Enlightening State of the Company Address One of the most galvanizing moments at Dometics corporate confab was a state of the company presentation in which Nelson outlined plans for profitable expansion in all of the markets in which Dometic currently does business including RV marine automotive trucking agricultural and hospitality as well as an emergent outdoor recreation arena With the business changing to the extent that it is were making a lot of investment here and I can tell you were going to be very acquisitive in the next couple of years added Nelson who announced in mid February the creation of Dometics new global marine division Its important for us to continue to grow because if our customers want us to be a trusted partner well need to offer more products more solutions to them he noted So despite a pretty difficult business environment we were able to generate an enormous amount of cash and that allows us obviously to make more acquisitions Despite that really difficult business cycle Nelson said Dometics employment has increased 70 since 2016 from 1584 to about 2250 people And again as things change our marine business now is over 40 of our revenues While were not representing marine here today its a really important part of our business and its the same appealing mantra Mobile Living Made Easy said Nelson whose parent firm on Feb 1 reported 2019 sales of 19 billion versus 189 billion in 2018 Fourth quarter sales were off marginally due to an ongoing company wide restructuring through which two production lines were moved from China to Monterrey Mexico while a 200 employee La Grange Ind facility was also being closed in March its awning production also moved to Mexico So I can assure you for those who have gone to Monterrey that this is a world class facility explained Nelson and for those of you who are in the manufacturing business Ive never heard another example of a corporation moving that quickly Kudos to the team that pulled that off including AIG New Yorkbased American International Group Inc our partners who really helped us do this Tariffs on Foreign Goods A Key Factor in Dometics Restructuring Nelson said Dometics strategic realignment of production facilities was originally triggered at least in part by the U S governments imposition of import tariffs So when Mr Trump announced the 25 tariff and both of our largest segments were faced with these stiff tariffs we went to work and we opened a plant in 97 days in Monterrey Mexico said Nelson It was relocated from China and imagine now with the coronavirus what wed be facing this year if we were still in China with our air conditioning line One of the other areas in which Dometic is targeting investment said Nelson is an elaborate new Microsoftbased D365 ERP upgrade part of a high priority push to modernize Dometics corporate systems across the board and simultaneously accelerate some major upgrades in the companys overall approach to servicing consumers Its a rigorous undertaking with some potentially surprising twists about which Nelson plans to elaborate after plans are finalized This according to word on the street could be a big deal On the RV business side of things he said we want to continue to move closer to our end users so were starting to pilot a service business Its an unmet need so we want to work with partners that will help us do more in service So youll start to see pieces of that this year We want to be part of solving a customers problems so this is important to us We also want to evolve to more of a B to C business to consumer marketing model using digital tools and video said Nelson What I mean by that is that we want to be a little bit more focused on the end user and also through our aftermarket while strengthening our relationship with RV OEMs Dometic in addition is amplifying its internal product development resources thanks in part to a new R D approach involving small highly dedicated inhouse teams One of the things Im probably the proudest of is the product development section noted Nelson Three years ago they were doing a lot of quick iterative modest product changes We are starting to develop products today that will start to launch that are game changers Theyre transformational and thats partly because of the time investment we had with you being able to better understand how to listen more than talk So weve done a lot of good work In fact he added this year new products will comprise 41 of our revenues Thats world class Again maybe well just have to rely more often on this term called resourcefulness and maybe this show is a perfect example of that Weve been able to work with you because it was so important to bring this to bear RVB Keynote speaker author Jay Acunzo a popular podcast and docuseries host producer Mastermind Council members meet regularly to help the company develop new products 46 RVBusiness M A R C H A P R I L 2 0 2 0