Impending short-time work despite full order books, major problems with the supply chains - these are the negative sides of the in Corona-Times accelerated motorhome booms again. the Erwin-Hymer Group tries to counteract this with new basic vehicles like the Ford Transit.
It sounds paradoxical. The Erwin-Hymer Group (EHG) with its ten motorhome and caravan brands in Corona times with 65.000 units in the 2020/2021 financial year, a record result with an increase of 10.000 units or 18 percent and also starts with sales of 2,7 billion euros has raised the bar to a new level, but EHG boss Martin Brandt is worried about the near future. "We have full order books, in some cases as early as the 2022/2023 financial year, and yet we are threatened with short-time work," predicts the managing director from Bad Waldsee in Upper Swabia.
Chassis do not arrive in time
On the one hand, the pandemic has accelerated the industry's sustained growth path, but it has also caused major problems in the supply chains. “There are massive delivery bottlenecks for semiconductors,” says Martin Brandt. This in turn leads to delays in the delivery of chassis that will certainly extend well into 2022. The situation is particularly bitter with the Fiat Ducato, the bestseller among the basic vehicles, which makes up over 70 percent of all motorhome chassis. Brandt anticipates that the production lines in the Italian Stellantis plant in Sevel will soon be forcibly shut down again for some time. "And that will probably mean short-time work for us as well this year."
The CEO of the Erwin-Hymer Group would like to compensate for the Ducato problems, at least in part, by switching to other basic makes and is primarily relying on the Ford Transit. However, that would not be possible overnight. “This requires design-related changes, and it takes one to one and a half years to implement,” explains Martin Brandt. "After our recently intensified cooperation with Mercedes and Citroën, we spoke to Ford last year." The focus is primarily on the Transit as the basis for camper vans, which in the Hymer Group with an increase of 60 percent around 21.000 units were the main drivers behind the registration record.
Ford Transit hardly represented
In contrast to its biggest competitor, the French Trigano Group with the German brands Eura Mobil, Karmann and Forster, the EHG has so far had little experience with the Ford Transit. Only Bürstner has just added a transit model to its portfolio with the Copa camping bus, and a plug-in hybrid camper based on Ford is in the starting blocks at Dethleffs. But neither the higher-positioned brands Hymer, Laika, Niesmann and LMC nor the entry-level brands Carado, Sunlight and Etrusco or the camping bus label Crosscamp have a Ford Transit in their portfolio.
Regardless of the semiconductor problems, however, the lack of supply parts for the living area also affects the delivery capability of motorhomes. There are material bottlenecks, for example, with furnishings from the refrigerator to the cassette toilets or with framed windows. Under certain circumstances, customers would have to wait up to one and a half years for a new vehicle, admits Martin Brandt, and adds another piece of bad news: "We will not be able to avoid having to pass on the price increases that we receive from our suppliers to our customers. "