The motorhome and RV segment of the automotive market is thriving worldwide, and especially in the United States. Winnebago is one of the largest manufacturers there, having recently celebrated the assembly of its 500,000th trailer van, so the news that it has $4.37 billion USD worth of unfinished orders comes as a shock.
Ordering works as follows: customers register them with authorized dealerships who then forward these orders to Winnebago for processing. The usual processing time averages six months, but with the backorder avalanche piling up like this, Winnebago now officially admits it will likely be unable to deliver most of these in time. Representatives of the company add that it is the first time it is facing such a mountain of work.
Out of the $4.37 billion USD of backorders, Winnebago has yet to deliver $2.21 billion worth of large motorhomes and 1.87 billion worth of trailers. The remaining amount falls on other products.
The demand for homes on wheels has skyrocketed since late 2019 when the first news broke about the impending pandemic. Interestingly enough, it stays high to this date with no signs of a decline in the near future.