Nov. 20--The Airstream trailer company, from a corner of the massive Ford footprint at the L.A. Auto Show, reports a booming year.
"We're crushing it," CEO Bob Wheeler said from inside one of the company's signature polished-aluminum capsules. "We're up 18% year to date over last year."
Wheeler said a new production facility has helped Airstream catch up with back orders -- but not all the way. The factory is still backlogged "about 20 weeks," Wheeler said. "We'd like that to be closer to 10."
The company may have trouble keeping up with itself, though. In an effort to bring down the average age of buyers for the elegant but expensive travel trailers and vans, Wheeler said, the company will shortly unveil a new product that's smaller, sportier, easier to operate and cheaper.
The typical new Airstream buyer, Wheeler said, has gotten younger, with the average age falling from mid-60s to late-50s. Wheeler would like that number to come down.
The new trailer won't come in the traditional aluminum shell, Wheeler said, but will be unmistakably an Airstream when it arrives in the middle of 2016.
Price point? Wheeler wouldn't say. But he hinted that it would need to be below the company's bottom of the line Sport trailer, which retails for about $43,000, and well below the cost of a Land Yacht, which starts at $146,000.
"The least expensive trailer we make costs about $43,000," he said. "We think we need to come down about $10,000 to really move the needle."
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