Thor Stacks Up $14 Billion in Backlogged Orders
The RV manufacturer, owner of brands like Jayco and Airstream, is ‘pretty much sold out for the next year.’
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RV manufacturer Thor Industries has a $14.32 billion order backlog. The company announced this in its 2021 third-quarter earnings report Tuesday.
Speaking during a segment on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” CEO Bob Martin said the company is “pretty much sold out for the next year.”
Many of Thor’s dealers also have “virtually no” inventory, but because a large portion of its backlog consists of presold orders, Thor won’t be able to increase its dealers’ inventories, Martin told Cramer.
“Since a significant number of units in our backlog have already been retail sold, we currently believe the restocking cycle will extend well into calendar 2022,” Martin said in the earnings report. To combat the pileup, Thor has and will continue to increase production, according to the company.
Thor Industries, which owns popular RV brands like Jayco and Airstream, noticed sales increasing in May and June of 2020, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing policies that restricted other forms of travel and recreation.
The sales increase continued and, for the third quarter of 2021 Thor achieved $3.46 billion in net sales, the strongest in the company’s history and a 105.7 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2020.
The $14 billion order backlog is a nearly 550 percent increase compared to the same time in 2020. And, Thor’s backlog for towables and motorized RVs by the end of April in North America increased 766 percent and 548 percent, respectively, compared to the same time in 2020.
