Winnebago
Not spending as much time viewing financial news these days makes any surprising story that much more interesting. If you had looked over MarketWatch’s frontpage offerings this a.m. you might have continued to look around after a quick read. If you had looked at the list of top gainers on Wall Street, it might have surprised you to see WGO. Also known as Winnebago. Which may have caused you to recall Dan Akroyd’s character in a movie called Sneakers. If not, suffice it to say that Akroyd’s character was sufficiently obsessed with ‘Winnebagos’ to help an already popular vehicle maker increase the value of its brand. To some it may be a surprise that Winnebago is on the list of big gainers today or any other day. Or you may hold the opinion that if you can afford the Winnebago, you can afford the gas.
Even when gasoline was under a dollar per gallon certain leisure activities like boating, depending on the type of craft, could easily eat up a day’s pay of the average income during a weekend outing. The percentage of fuel used in leisure or other supplemental activities in this country may be quite small. The constant call for cars and trucks to become sufficiently modest in their consumption of fossil fuels largely ignores the remainder of available transportation. Even the kerosene used for jet fuel or testing diesel engines for aircraft has not created much of a discussion on what will be done if the alternative fuel craze ignites and the ethanol or wheat grass ideas take hold. What about all the diesel engines? What about alternatives for aircraft? What about all the industrial uses for fossil fuels and that of the petrochemical business? But all that starts about ten more articles and is not a task for this blog today.
Seeing the news about Winnebago was just a good opportunity to raise a question. What about our culture, habits, interests and the state of energy and its associated solutions that need to be found. Are we not discussing this problem much like the issue of global warming? There is too much talk and argument plus decisions being made on too little information and a lack of considering a bigger picture than we have. While it may take some sort of crisis for the people of this planet to handle problem resolution expeditiously, a whole new outside the box thinking method is required to more completely solve the problems that face us now or in the future. We may approach problem solving through our own experience which may be limited or specialized enough that we miss the boat, or RV, on many issues.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Winnebago Industries Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2007 Financial Results Conference Call to Be Held on October 11, 2007
FOREST CITY, Iowa–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 4, 2007–Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), a leading United States motor home manufacturer, will host a conference call on Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 9 a.m. Central Time (CT) to discuss the financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal 2007 ended August 25, 2007. The Company will release its financial results on October 11, 2007 at 6:00 a.m. CT.
Winnebago Industries’ conference call may be heard live via the Company’s website, http://www.winnebagoind.com/investor.html. The event will be archived and available for replay for the next 90 days. To access the replay, click on http://www.winnebagoind.com/investor.html.
Minimum requirements to listen to the Web cast: either Windows Media Player or RealPlayer and at least a 28.8 Kbps connection to the Internet. The Windows Media Player software is downloadable free at: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp, and the RealPlayer software is downloadable free at: www.real.com/products/player/index.html.
About Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries, Inc. is a leading United States manufacturer of motor homes, self-contained recreation vehicles used primarily in leisure travel and outdoor recreation activities. The Company builds quality motor homes under the Winnebago and Itasca brand names with state-of-the-art computer-aided design and manufacturing systems on automotive-styled assembly lines. The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York and Chicago Stock Exchanges and traded under the symbol WGO. Options for the Company’s common stock are traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. For access to Winnebago Industries’ investor relations material, to add your name to an automatic email list for Company news releases or for information on a dollar-based stock investment service for the Company’s stock, visit, http://www.winnebagoind.com/investor.html.
Winnebago Industries Reports Results for Third Quarter and First Nine Months Fiscal Year 2007
FOREST CITY, Iowa–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 15, 2007–Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), a leading United States motor home manufacturer, today reported financial results for the Company’s third quarter and first nine months of fiscal year 2007 ended May 26, 2007.
Revenues for the quarter were $231.7 million, an increase of 5.2 percent, compared to revenues of $220.3 million for the third quarter last fiscal year. Net income for the third quarter was $11.3 million, a decrease of 14.4 percent compared to net income of $13.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2006. On a diluted per share basis, the Company earned 35 cents a share for the third quarter of fiscal 2007, compared to 40 cents per diluted share for the third quarter last fiscal year.
Revenues increased 5.2 percent for the quarter due to a higher mix of Class A motor home deliveries. However, gross profit for the third quarter was negatively impacted by an increase in the mix of lower-margin motor homes in both Class A and Class C categories, as well as escalating materials and labor costs related to model year 2007 products. Net income for the third quarter was additionally impacted by increased selling expenses due to the acceleration of the Company’s Dealer Days event from the fourth quarter to the third quarter, and increased general and administrative expenses primarily as a result of increased bonus expense due to the Company achieving a portion of its incentive compensation objectives.
Revenues for the first nine months of fiscal 2007 were $632.5 million, a decrease of 4.0 percent compared to $659.0 million for the same period last fiscal year. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2007 was $26.7 million, a decrease of 24.6 percent compared to $35.4 million for the same period of fiscal 2006. On a diluted per share basis, the Company earned 84 cents a share for the first nine months of fiscal 2007, compared to $1.08 a share for the first nine months of fiscal 2006.
“We were pleased with the positive reaction to the introduction of our new 2008 Winnebago and Itasca products at our recent Dealer Days event in Las Vegas,” said Winnebago Industries’ Chairman and CEO Bruce Hertzke. “It is our goal to increase our Class A diesel market share and I believe our new and redesigned diesel product lines will have a positive impact going forward.”
“Production of our new 2008 models began in April,” said Winnebago Industries’ President Bob Olson. “We scheduled our Dealer Days event in May, a full month earlier than last year, in order to more closely align the model year production schedule with the model year introduction to our dealer partners. Moving this event into the Company’s third quarter also had a positive impact on our sales order backlog, which showed a 45 percent increase compared to the third quarter last year. Most dramatically impacted by our Dealer Days event was the sales order backlog of both our Class A gas and diesel motor homes with 1,316 units as of May 26, 2007, a 137 percent increase compared to 556 units as of May 27, 2006.”
“We believe the sales order backlog increase is due to the timing of our Dealer Days event and the acceptance of our new 2008 products at that event and not a reflection of the current market,” said Olson. Statistical Surveys, Inc., a retail reporting service for the RV industry, recently reported continued softness in the retail market, with a decrease in retail sales of Class A and C motor homes of 9.5 percent year to date through April 2007.
“We continued our long-term strategy of returning profits to our shareholders and as a result, during the Company’s third quarter ended May 26, 2007, Winnebago Industries repurchased 627,900 shares of common stock for $20.5 million,” said Hertzke. As of May 26, 2007, $1.7 million remained available under the April 12, 2006 Board of Directors common stock repurchase authorization. Winnebago Industries has repurchased 24.4 million shares of common stock for $356.8 million since December 31, 1997.
Winnebago Industries will conduct a conference call in conjunction with this release at 9 a.m. Central Time today, Friday, June 15, 2007. Members of the news media, investors and the general public are invited to access a live broadcast of the conference call via the Investor Relations page of the Company’s website at http://www.winnebagoind.com/investor.html. The event will be archived and available for replay for the next 90 days.
About Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries, Inc. is a leading U.S. manufacturer of motor homes, self-contained recreation vehicles used primarily in leisure travel and outdoor recreation activities. The Company builds quality motor homes under the Winnebago and Itasca brand names with state-of-the-art computer-aided design and manufacturing systems on automotive-styled assembly lines. The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York and Chicago Stock Exchanges and traded under the symbol WGO. Options for the Company’s common stock are traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. For access to Winnebago Industries’ investor relations material, to add your name to an automatic email list for Company news releases or for information on a dollar-based stock investment service for the Company’s stock, visit, http://www.winnebagoind.com/investor.html.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements, including, but not limited to the effect of global tensions, declines in consumer confidence, the availability and price of fuel, a significant increase in interest rates, a slowdown in the economy, availability of chassis or other key component parts, sales order cancellations, slower than anticipated sales of new or existing products, new products introduced by competitors and other factors. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from that projected or suggested is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last 12 months, copies of which are available from the SEC or from the Company upon request.