Sales at Spartan Chassis, the largest subsidiary and operating unit of Spartan Motors, Inc, decreased 60 percent year-over year to $98.2 million for the current quarter. Spartan Chassis represented 85 percent of Spartan Motors' total consolidated sales in the 2009 first quarter.
Spartan Chassis' net earnings declined 59.8 percent year-over-year in the quarter, due primarily to the decline in sales.
Sales to the Class A diesel motorhome market decreased 91.7 percent year-over-year in the quarter, while backlog for RV chassis decreased 75.0 percent year-over-year to $4.4 million as of March 31, 2009.
Sales of fire truck chassis in the 2009 first quarter increased 11.8 percent compared to the same period in 2008, and backlog for fire truck chassis as of March 31, 2009 was $98.0 million, a 38.6 percent year-over-year increase. The company reported increased demand for fire truck chassis, due in part to increased demand from changes to industry safety regulations and the 2010 engine emission standards.
"As expected, the outlook for motorhomes remains difficult," said John Sztykiel, president and CEO of Spartan Motors. "We already have appropriately scaled our operations to match demand in the second half of 2009. We believe we have positioned ourselves to weather the storm until the industry eventually recovers. Spartan is continuing new product development and engineering innovations for motorhome chassis, some of which we plan to debut at the RVIA trade show later in 2009." 2009 Big Rigs Best Bets Campground Directory If
you drive a king-sized RV, this directory is for you. The authors
provide details about 1,100 RV parks throughout the USA and six Canadian Provinces that welcome long motorhomes and towable RVs. This should be an essential resource for owners of large RVs. Learn more or order
*PRIVACY POLICY:
Email and/or any other personal information we gather is never
sold or shared with outsiders. You'll never receive junk email as a result
of your subscription.
2009 Big Rigs Best Bets