Bold name... Thor Industries is more camping than glamping as the biggest RV-maker on Earth. It boasts a team of recreational vehicle brands that sound like desperate Eagle Scout nicknames: Bison, Jayco, Buccaneer, Keystone. Leading the fleet is Insta-worthy throwback Airstream. But here's the name that drove its overall sales up 23% last quarter: Erwin Hymer.
- Thor splurged $2B on the German RV brand earlier this year.
- Now Hymer's helped Thor push RV'ing across the pond deeper into Europe.
Camping is the new ironic Millennial thing... We're teased for juice cleanses, but our generation powered RV sales to record highs in 2017 getting heavy traffic to National Parks. That snagged entrepreneur attention: Outdoorsy ("Airbnb for your RV") and Hipcamp (private campsite booking site) solved camp problems totally unrelated to toilet paper. But in 2017, US RV sales peaked and Thor stock is down 65% ever since.
When US sales slow, look to emerging markets... That's what soda companies did, candy companies have done, and Thor is now doing. Thor's new German RV-maker, Hymer, happens to have a joint venture with a Chinese RV company and pursues Southeast Asia. Now Thor can reach millions of middle class Chinese who are down-to-backpack as American ex-RVers return to their cities. Emerging markets = Emerging campers