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MVP RVs--old Thor plant with new face and a new life
By Russ and Tina DeMaris

Riverside, CA -- There's a new spirit said to be wafting about in a former Thor RV manufacturing plant. "When this transaction was being put together," I didn't think the employee reaction would be as dramatic as it has been." So told Roger Humeston to the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Humeston is a former Thor manager, who with two other men, bought up the California RV plant earlier this month.

The employee reaction that Humeston speaks of is a postive feeling, perhaps a touch of local esprie de corps among the 250 production employees. Now having moved from a stockholder-pleasing publicly held status that Thor held, MVP says it will focus on keeping the employees happy. Part of that plan is to plow company profits back into the business, including the payout of employee bonuses and pay hikes.

The company management has a positive outlook, too, regarding the RV market in general. While they feel Thor had lost interest in California, they have an outlook that while it was one of the first states to be adversely effected by a downturned economy, they project it will be one of the first states to make a turnaround and head for positive economic ground.

Still the new guys don't have a view that things will be 'just the same, only different.' MVP says it will focus on putting their products on a lean, mean diet. Say losing about one or two thousand pounds as an example. The new MVP 26' travel trailer will weight about that much less than competitors' similar models. With that kind of lightening up on the scales, MVP units will be better positioned to hit the market in a fuel-saving world.

And that "MVP" name for the company. Where did that come from? The three new owners were struggling to come up with a suitable name for the new firm. When partner Brad Williams was attending a Lakers game, the crowd began to chant, and it just came to him. 


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