RVBusiness, September/October 2019

be involved Hes talked about it for a few years just at some point taking some time and stepping back And for him hes always heavily involved in any acquisition as well as strategic planning and thinking And thats not about to change Those are the things that he loves Martin said of Orthwein a major Thor stockholder whose great great grandfather was Adolphus Busch of Anheuser Busch fame You know I talk to Peter almost every day so I dont see a lot of changes Its just the fact that the chairman manages the board and thats where we will have a change coming up at the chairmans role But having him as chairman emeritus is something that is important to our staff our board to honor him for his sterling reputation after 40 years in the industry That said youll still see Peter in September on his golf cart at the Elkhart RV Open House Orthwein and Thompson as the story goes first met at a business luncheon in 1976 and initially bought Ohio towable RV builder Hi Lo Trailer Co in the fall of 1977 as a personal investment for less than 1 million in a depressed marketplace amid the gas crisis of the 1970s Neither of us knew anything about recreational vehicles Orthwein told The New York Times in a news story following Thompsons passing on Nov 12 2009 But the company had a bunch of cash on its balance sheet and assets we could borrow against Thor a name extrapolated from the first two letters of Thompson and Orthweins last names was launched in 1980 when the two acquired the troubled manufacturer of Airstream travel trailers from Beatrice Foods for a total price of 1 As an investment banker at the time I was working with big companies on their divisions that were losing money their troubled divisions recalled Orthwein And I sold a business for Beatrice an eyeglass frame business they owned Beatrice was a conglomerate back then and so I knew the people there and I kept calling them on Airstream You know they kept thinking Airstream would do better and it was getting worse and worse Nobody was interested in buying it and so finally they agreed to sell it to us We put up one dollar And we gladly bought it he added I mean Wade went out and ran it and turned it around Now when I say we put up one dollar I should add that Airstream had an insurance subsidiary that in those days with gas lines everywhere during the fuel crisis and people not driving their RVs very much was very profitable because there werent very many accidents And we found somebody to buy the insurance company Peter Orthwein who is transitioning to the position of chairman emeritus of Thor Industries Inc with Thor President and CEO Bob Martin for cash and they closed their purchase simultaneous with us So Beatrice got cash I mean it was 600000 in cash at the closing from the insurance part Airstream aside of course there were a number of other acquisitions that occurred in the years that followed not all of which Orthwein noted worked out as well as Airstream But all in all he agreed its been an impressive story to follow inasmuch as that 1 acquisition eventually resulted in what today is the worlds leading RV builder in terms of volume and market share a status that was greatly amplified on both sides of the Atlantic with Thors February acquisition of Erwin Hymer Group EHG Yes its been a good ride Orthwein told RVB We bought a lot of companies and a lot of them didnt work out Theyd work out for a while and then didnt work out But all in all you know we had some fantastic successes including Airstream Keystone Heartland and Thor Motor Coach On the other hand for example I can tell you that we bought Traveleze and that wasnt a success And the RV operations of Commodore in Canada which we also purchased were not a success So weve owned a lot of companies and weve had a lot of successes and weve shut down a lot of RV plants I mean its not always fun but you cant just keep sticking money into a sinking ship said Orthwein who will presumably elaborate on this and other topics in an upcoming book due for release in October entitled King of the Road The History of Thor Industries Inc Author Jeff Rodengen chairman and CEO of publisher Write Stuff Enterprises LLC Fort Lauderdale Fla has been working for about a year and a quarter on the 200 plus page Thor book a comprehensive history of the company from its inception through the EHG acquisition Its a big book well illustrated with timelines lots of sidebars I think we did about 40 or 50 interviews with Orthwein all around the world said Rodengen adding that there will be an iPad version of the book available in both English and German with video links that will be released at about the same time Rodengen clearly holds Orthwein in high regard as does the RV industry in general and its lead trade association according to Craig Kirby the RV Industry S E P T E M B E R O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 RVBusiness 55