RVBusiness, September/October 2019

The massive Furrion Design exhibit at Januarys Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas included a 78 foot Adonis smart yacht S E P T E M B E R O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 RVBusiness 73 including Furrions new eROVE batterypowered electric cooler and Angel the virtual concierge aboard the Adonis that was developed by Furrion engineers As Furrion co founders Aaron and Matt Fidler told RVBusiness during an early August interview at the companys North American Innovation Center in northeast Elkhart Ind near the RV MH Hall of Fame the eye opening display served to announce in a big way the companys expansion into the wider consumer outdoor leisure marketplace It was the biggest event weve ever done noted Matt Fidler chief marketing officer for Furrion and planning it took two years We collaborated with our marine manufacturer to build the worlds smartest luxury yacht then had it shipped from Turkey It was a 78 foot boat and as you can imagine taking that through the desert to Las Vegas was a huge project We had police escorts We had to take down power lines just trucking it from the Port of Los Angeles to Las Vegas took nearly eight days But while Furrion has in the span of a dozen years or so made inroads into a number of diverse industries ranging from marine and trucking to the compact living market CEO Aaron Fidler is insistent that the RV industry remains the companys primary business and in fact Furrion has taken steps recently to increase its footprint in recreational vehicles Were in the process of building our own distribution network sales logistics Weve already started hiring our sales teams and building the infrastructure and putting the processes in place Aaron Fidler told RVB That represents something of a sea change for Furrion which partnered with Elkhart based Lippert Components Inc LCI throughout the past four years With LCIs established support in place the affiliation allowed Furrion to utilize Lippert sales and distribution networks while allowing the company to focus on product development and marketing Our strategic objectives have changed said Aaron Fidler Its been a great partnership and weve accomplished a lot together Weve grown tremendously with the help of Lippert our partnership allowed us to build this Innovation Center weve been able to build our engineering base and our marketing base weve been able to expand into the retail market and are starting to roll out with a lot of products into new retail chains And were expanding globally weve got offices now also in the U K the European market were supplying globally to Australia the U K all over the world he continued So our partnership with Lippert has allowed tremendous growth for us Matt Fidler concurred Its been great for the both of us and were still working together going forward but its time for us to go direct and support customers We feel its going to provide a great opportunity for us to create new partnerships Were going to go after the market very aggressively to create more value and really innovate with our customers Were looking towards the end of the transition just to make sure its very seamless for our customers he added Were very close to Lippert to make sure thats seamless and clean customers wont even notice a difference They know were going to do great deals with our new partners and make sure theyre looked after Theyre going to have a great experience from us To that end Furrion has implemented Furrions revamped display inside its innovation center features a number of the companys RV products including its CHILL line of rooftop air conditioners Designed for the outdoors Furrions weatherproof stainless steel patio appliances include a six burner gas grill oven refrigerators cocktail station Kegerator and icemaker