The double-feature nightmare of high fuel prices and tight credit has hurt recreational-vehicle sales and contributed to Tucson's biggest RV dealer losing one of its top lines.
As a result, more than 100 Fleetwood RVs were taken from Beaudry RV's lot and locked up at a Tucson Electric Park lot this week.
Beaudry RV, 3200 E. Irvington Road, is no longer a Fleetwood dealer, Beaudry RV CEO Thomas Sylvester confirmed. Sylvester said the Fleetwood products "were moved to a neutral site."
He later acknowledged that the company that is storing the RVs at TEP is the one that financed the Fleetwood stock.
Sylvester wouldn't talk about the details of Beaudry's split with Fleetwood, including who initiated the change.
He called the situation part of "a perfect storm of economic factors."
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"We had to make difficult decisions," he said. "Our main focus will be on the Monaco, Keystone and other affiliations that we already have and we'll be expanding."
The company has pared its staff by about 20 percent in the last two years, he added.
Beaudry Motor Co., which until recent years included several East Side auto dealerships, was the 110th largest employer on the Arizona Daily Star's list of Southern Arizona employers in 2006 with 479 workers. It dropped off the top 200 list in 2007.
A deal to sell Beaudry RV to a large Florida-based RV chain fell through this summer.
Still servicing Fleetwoods
Sylvester said Beaudry RV would continue to operate as an authorized Fleetwood service center and concentrate on selling recreational vehicle lines by other manufacturers.
Several lines are manufactured, distributed and sold under the Fleetwood name, including Class A (bus-style) and C (smaller van chassis) motor homes, fifth wheel and "toy hauler" trailers and other towable recreational vehicles.
Sylvester said he anticipated no other changes at Beaudry RV's Tucson and Chandler sites.
A Fleetwood official at corporate headquarters in Riverside, Calif. confirmed that the dealership relationship with Beaudry had been severed and that Beaudry would remain an authorized service center. But she declined to discuss details of the break with Beaudry, a longtime Fleetwood dealer.
Fleetwood spokeswoman Kathy A. Munson also said Fleetwood was closing one of its manufacturing plants, in Pennsylvania, and consolidating operations at an existing plant in Indiana, cutting 325 workers.
Fleetwood reported a 41 percent drop in revenue — 51 percent for its RV group — and an operating loss of $23.2 million for its fiscal first quarter ended July 27.
Shipments down all over
Industrywide, RV shipments through August were down 22.7 percent from 2007, said the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, based in Reston, Va.
Beaudry RV's Web site continued to list Fleetwood's logo on its home page Wednesday, but Fleetwood's corporate home page showed Earnhardt RV Center in Mesa as Tucson's nearest dealer for Fleetwood's large RV lines.
On Wednesday, about 100 Fleetwood motor homes and trailers were parked in the fenced player parking lots at Tucson Electric Park, 2500 E. Ajo Way. A Pima County official said his department had a contract with GE Commercial Distribution Finance Corp. to store the RVs for up to a month, with GE picking up the tab for round-the-clock security.
GE Commercial Distribution Finance is a leading provider of "flooring," or dealer financing for vehicles until they are sold. A call to the company's office in Mesa was not returned Wednesday afternoon.
Sylvester confirmed that GE was Beaudry's flooring provider for the Fleetwood products.
The nearest dealer for large Fleetwood RVs is now Earnhardt RV Center, 2222 E. Main St., in Mesa, according to the Fleetwood Web site's dealer locator.
Calls to that dealership's executive at the Mesa offices were not returned Wednesday afternoon. But a staffer there said Earnhardt RV had recently been sold to Camping World RV Sales and is a Fleetwood dealership.
One ray of light, at least
As the RV industry struggles, at least one local dealer is trying to get the message out that it's not all doom and gloom.
South Side dealer Freedom RV sent a press release out this week through a public-relations firm, announcing that its employees would be guaranteed jobs through the remainder of the year.
Devin Murphy, owner of Freedom RV, 3735 E. Irvington Road, said he took the unusual step because of rumors about Beaudry RV's problems and the news of some layoffs at Jim Click's local auto dealerships, both of which he said rocked his employees' confidence.
Murphy said he told his manager this week that not only would he not cut workers, but he would keep paying his staff through the end of the year, based on an average of nine months' pay.
"We're in the business of customer service. If they're worrying about whether they're going to have a job, they're not going to be worried about my customers.
"It's really picked up the morale here," said Murphy. "They've sold 12 RVs in the four days since I've done it," said Murphy.
Murphy said the promise of job and pay security until the end of the year should take them through to the snowbird season, when business generally picks up.
At that point, Murphy said, he's hoping the decrease in fuel prices and recovering credit market will revive sales.
"Sales did pick up once fuel prices started going back down," Murphy said. "You know, fuel prices slowed it down a little bit, but not a lot. They're (RVers) still traveling, but they stay longer in the places they were going."
Did you know
S.M. "Mac" Beaudry, grandfather of Beaudry RV President Bob Beaudry, founded Beaudry Motor Co. in 1940 with a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership on North Stone Avenue, just south of Speedway. In 1969 the Beaudrys moved their operation to East 22nd Street and South Swan Road.
Beaudry sold off six of its East Side auto dealerships to Scottsdale-based Chapman Automotive Group in 2004. Chapman recently took over another Beaudry dealership, Saturn of Tucson, at 6350 E. Grant Road.