Hi All,

Wanted to let you know what Mike Snell had to say about the future of the Beaver brand at the lead-in in Albuquerque, MN. He spent over an hour with us, answering questions and listening to our suggestions.  
He started off with an explanation of where Monaco was a few years ago and where they are today. They have gone from 6000 employees to 800.  They were producing 38,000 coaches a year; last year they made 6100.  They are now building 8 diesel coaches a week.  At the current time it is very difficult to get a bank loan for a coach that sells for over $300,000.  Early this year they built several Beaver coaches and they did not sell.  They were finally sold to a Canadian company at a loss.  Mike summed up by saying that at this time they do not have the capacity to build the number of brands that they could in the past.  They are building a limited number of Monaco and Holiday Rambler coaches, but will not be building Beavers or Safari in the immediate future.  Mike said that if sales return to what they were a few years ago, they may reconsider and bring back the Beaver brand. Most of us at the rally, after hearing Mike speak, felt that the re-emergence of the Beaver brand may be highly unlikely.  
Monaco will continue to provide parts, service and support to Beaver owners. This will include parts and support for older Beaver coaches. You may find that some of the email address and phone numbers at Monaco do not work at this time. The parts and service numbers are up and running but there are fewer people to staff them.  As they reorganize, communication will get better.

At the BAC Board meeting, steps were taken to balance our budget deficit, caused by the loss of Monaco support.  You can see what was done when we post the report on the Board and Corporate meetings in a few days.
Hope this helps clear up some of the questions you may have about our future.

Tim Bentley

They built "several" Beavers?  Shame that the dealers didnt seem to know about it.  Perhaps that is why it / they didnt sell?  They had the first three months of this year to build and sell them, that's not much time and the BAC aparently didnt even know.
The deal is, a used model of a brand still in production carries alot more weight on the market just due to consumer confidence.  I understand the constraints of business but others are selling by all accounts.

These are some of issues I understood from the meeting:

Monaco sells to dealers.

Dealers do not want to buy and floor expensive coaches hoping the public will buy.

Banks are not willing to loan to consumers for expensive motor homes.

Dealers do not see many customers walking in with half a million in cash to buy a new coach.

Without demand and financing, dealers would rather buy several lower cost RVs than one expensive one to set on their lot.

So the Beavers that were not sold to dealers had to be wholesaled at a loss.

Until that scenario changes, Beavers will not be produced.

Larry

Holiday Motorhomes of Mesa Az. had two new Beavers at the Albuquerque rally as show coaches. One was a 2009 Contessa that was built by Monaco Coach (old Monaco), and the other one was a 2010 Patriot Thunder that was built by Monaco RV (new Monaco or Navistar). The Thunder had a front kitchen floor plan (the same as a Regal 4 in the 2010 Monaco Dynasty), and the fit and finish on all of the interior was excellent.  

Gerald