First quarter shows great promise for Knaus Tabbert

One of Germany’s biggest leisure vehicle manufacturers, Knaus Tabbert, has reported that the high demand for caravans and motorhomes remains after examining its figures for the first quarter of 2022. The company reported an order intake of 6,000 units for the quarter as well as an increase of two per cent in units delivered to 7,247. The company’s order backlog also remained at a high level as of 31 March 2022 at an estimated 31,000 units – this can be largely attributed to issues in the supply chain affecting the entire motorhome and caravan industry.

While production of caravans increased by 45 per cent, production of higher-end motorhomes and vans declined by 33 per cent and 50 per cent respectively, despite strong demand due to anticipated chassis bottlenecks. This changed product mix with a significantly lower average price is reflected in a year-on-year decline in the Knaus Tabbert Group’s key earnings figures.

Knaus Tabbert CEO, Wolfgang Speck, commented: “As expected, supply bottlenecks of motorised chassis in the first quarter of 2022 continued to create an unproductive stop-and-go mode in our factories. We have to adjust to this in the second quarter as well. In the second half of the year, we will increasingly enter calmer waters with our multi-sourcing strategy and gradually increase the production rate. We continue to adhere to our growth strategy. Caravanning will continue to offer people a positive leisure perspective in the future and this in a wide range of economic and ecological scenarios.

“We are currently also accepting that profitability in these difficult times in favour of our growth strategy, is less strong in the short term. Thus, we are deliberately maintaining a surplus of qualified personnel in order to be able to act quickly when the supply chain is expected to normalise.”

Overall, the Knaus Tabbert Groip generated €222.3 million in the first three months of the 2022 financial year, compared to €238.9 million in the corresponding period last year.

X