I have been following FWD for years but still have not bought...

I have been following FWD for years but still have not bought in. I was disappointed to read that they are transferring all their caravan production to Western Australia. Have they got rocks in their head? The vast majority of new vans are bought by retirees in the heavily populated south east corner of Australia…...Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine coast. It is a significant competitive disadvantage to have to transport bulky new vans from WA to the Eastern states.

They type of vans they build are the mass produced “average” van which is in a cut throat market segment. It is hard to compete in this market with the efficiency and low cost Jaycos that come off the production line in Melbourne every 20 minutes (Jayco have 40% of the caravan market in Australia). Their transport disadvantage from WA must make them uncompetitive in this market segment.

One thing they need to do is develop a genuine off road model as this is where the demand is and big profits are. There are only about 7 or 8 manufacturers of genuine off road vans and 5 of them are in SE Qld (Phoenix, Kedron, Bushtracker, Spinifex & Sunland). We had to wait 4 months to get our new off road van last year as demand is so great for these vans. I have heard the waiting time for some models I have mentioned above is 6 to 9 months.

Personally I think FWD need to re-think their business model and have a strategy that will make them competitive in the future and have products that are in demand. I want to buy into FWD but I just can’t do it (even at current prices) until I have some confidence they have a better and stronger future. Time will tell.