Apparently another good RV manufacturer is closing down. Just saw this notice.

Fred, you gave me a momentary fright!  When I saw the title of your posting (More Bad News), I thought "Oh no, Jo's taken another tumble!!".  Glad to read your post & find that the news was NOT about Jo!!

This is from the NuWa Owners Forum. It was posted by the NuWa CEO.

Rumors abound in our industry today and any action not viewed as ordinary seems to create emotion and statements without factual basis.  Below are some facts to dispel the inaccuracies where they might exist.   As well, we typically find the media doesn't a very good job of describing the conversation of an interview.  Not sure where they got the word "slamming", but it's not from Neil, just as he wouldn't have said "never" about something that he can not be certain of.  Most of our competitors are closing much of November and most of December.  NuWa is concerned about meeting our delivery commitments, thus we are finishing all units in the system in Nov., Dec, and early January and closing for an undetermined amount of time thereafter.  Two issues are causing the rumors that we could have avoided.  One is our desire to be upfront with dealers and customers.   Most manufacturers will "hide" all information as much as possible.   And two is the Federal WARN employee notification law, that requires 60 days notice to all employees involved with a "mass" layoff.  Because of the uncertainty of what may happen early January, we felt we had no choice but to give the worst possible notice to our employees, even though that decision has not in fact been made.  If we don't do so, and business doesn't rebound, then NuWa is required by law to pay "all" employees full pay and benefits for another 60 days.  Thus we felt we had to prepare for the worst scenario by giving this early and harsh notice, but hope for something better.  The WARN law has little flexibility and clarity in interpretation, just as we might expect.

I am leaving for three weeks on a long planned trip to Europe.  I'm not taking my computer.  Obviously it's not the best time to be gone, but I'm committed.   I just wanted to make sure that members understand why I won't be active on the forum for three weeks.   I will provide updates when I return in December.  

1.  NuWa has announced to it's dealer network a planned production shutdown due to a lack of sufficient orders in the backlog system to keep its plant running efficiently.  It is more costly in some cases to build inefficiently, than it is to temporarily cease building at all.  We are not comfortable building additional factory inventory.  And that is our predicament in today's extremely soft economy.  The reason NuWa has chosen to not accept orders at all for a while is to eliminate the possibility of an assumed commitment to build a retail sold trailer by a certain time.  Nothing could be worse than for a dealer to sell a trailer, give NuWa the order, sell the customer's trade in, and then find that NuWa will not meet the expectations of the customer for delivery date.  We would rather not take the order than to take it and risk disappointing.  

2.  NuWa has made no announcement or decision about permanently ceasing production of RVs despite what the rumors might suggest.  We have made such a decision for the short term and will observe the retail market activity for a few weeks in an effort to determine when and if the market will rebound.  Our crystal ball is no more accurate than anyones, thus we simply do not know what cards will be dealt us going forward.  I would expect that more will be known by mid December to early January and further announcements will be made as decisions are made.

3.  In order to meet the delivery date expectations of customers, NuWa will complete all units that are already in the production system and those that are ordered in time to join the last groups of units being entered into the production process.  I would estimate that a unit needs to be ordered by November 15th or so, to be built before the production shutdown.  As was done before, the "staggered" shutdown process will be utilized, which means each department's employee's will go on layoff as their department's work is finished.

4.  A somewhat vague federal law which requires advance notice of a "mass" layoff by a business has forced us to provide notice of layoff to virtually all employees as a protection to NuWa of the unknown.   This inflexible  law forces us to plan for the worst and hope for the best in our efforts to "not trap" ourselves from regulatory actions.  This action unfortunately increases the probability of rumor based on emotion and not fact.

5.  NuWa has taken action on two very important issues to give confidence to consumers and dealers and to help dispel rumors.   First NuWa has set aside in reserve the estimated funds to meet its obligations of warranty for HitchHikers in the hands of customers and on the lots of dealers.  In other words, even if the economy deals NuWa the worst possible hand going forward, the assurance of continued warranty support has been committed.  As well, NuWa has planned a "stand alone" service, parts and warranty division that will continue to take care of customers, who visit the factory, even if production should not re-activate.   Being unsure of what will happen in the future, we feel that it is our responsibility to reasonably meet the warranty and service obligations for our products, and I know of no other manufacturer, who has taken these steps to ensure and protect the position of its customers and dealers.  Obviously it is our hope that NuWa will continue to build RVs for a long time in the future, but just in case, we wanted to eliminate unnecessary fear.  Nothing can be guaranteed forever, but I would rather be a customer buying a new HitchHiker today with this knowledge, than take a chance that some other manufacturer may not be so open with communication, then file unexpected bankruptcy and leave it's customer with no warranty support.

6.  NuWa is not going to the Louisville show for two reasons.  One, is that "high end" companies such as ours typically do little business at or because of this show, and two is that we are not anxious to sign any new dealers until we have a better picture of the future.   The retail market is what we will watch as a barometer of the industry's health.

Hopefully this information clarifies the concerns of some owners and/or NuWa dealers.  We can't provide information that we don't know, but we are sensitive to the concerns that exist.   There will always be competitors and others who will "misuse" the information that is known.  We cannot control what others say, only what we do.     MIKE MITCHELL
NuWa is on my short list of RVs. Hopefully they can weather the storm and there will still be some builders of "full-time" RVs when we are ready to hit the road.

Tim and Robyn,
Have you considered finding a gently used HitchHiker?  We found a pristine 05 CE (everyone thinks it's an 09).  Have you been to the NuWa owners forum? PM me if you like...
Carole =)