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Old 06-24-2009, 12:38 PM   #1
KTManiac
Montana Master
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location:
Posts: 560
M.O.C. #8818
Local Montana dealer.....................Gone!


The local Montana dealer has disappeared almost overnight. From what I hear, the bank sort of sucker-punched them and called due the note for all of their inventory on Friday, right out of left field. It must have been in the $10-20 million range as they had loads of motor coaches, 5er's, and TT's on the lot.

Gresham RV, in Gresham, Oregon, closes the doors today after 30 years. They would have shut them down on Friday, except that they had some unfinished work on someones 5th wheel in service, and they were hanging around for the customer to show up and get his rig today. There was even an independent security guard outfit on the premises to keep an eye on the inventory.

Even though I did not purchase my 5er from them, I did frequent their parts department. The parts department was unable to sell anything when I went in this afternoon. Just some people in picking up things that they had ordered pre-paid earlier on. I feel badly for everyone that worked there. Forty-something employees out of work. The situation may have been brewing earlier on and known about at the upper management level, but from the employee perspective, nobody that I talked to saw it coming down the pike.

There was some optimism from some of them that they may start over at a later date and different location, but time will tell on that. Hopefully, if they do re-emerge, they will update their business model to better compete in the modern sales arena. Their sales department was similar to a car dealership, with the back and forth offer/counter offer, "I'll go see what the sales manager says about this offer.", type of scenario. I don't think it is a model that works very well anymore. IMO, they need to modernize, if indeed they do make a comeback.

I guess they were not alone in the "note due" demand from the bank, as it is rumored that 90+ other businesses were also put in the same position of "Buy your inventory now, or we will take it and liquidate it for you."

So, if you usually have your service work done there, you will need to find somewhere else to get it done.

I don't know if Keystone will pull the Montana line from them and award it to some other dealer in the area, but if they do, Olinger Travel Homes would be a likely one to get it as they have a nice facility and carry the Everest, Raptor, and Sprinter lines already.

I hate banks, they have no soul and they could give a rip about any of their customers. I do all my stuff through local credit unions these days. At least they know my name when I walk in the door.

Anyway, that's my news for the day.

KTManiac is offline   Reply With Quote