THOR CEO Says RV Market Recovery Many Expected Never Arrived

The RV market recovery many manufacturers and dealers hoped would arrive in 2026 never really materialized, according to the head of the world’s largest RV manufacturer.

“The retail market never reached the inflection point many in the industry expected,” THOR Industries President and CEO Bob Martin said while announcing the company’s fiscal 2026 financial results this week.

Martin pointed to stubborn interest rates, higher fuel costs and continued inflation as pressures on household budgets that kept RV retail sales soft through the main 2026 selling season.

That’s a notable change from earlier in the year. In June, Martin said THOR was still waiting for an “inflection in consumer confidence and the retail market” while dealing with weak demand and cautious dealer ordering, according to the company’s third-quarter results.

By the end of the fiscal year, that rebound still hadn’t arrived.

The numbers show just how soft the market remained

THOR’s North American towable RV sales fell 22.7% during its fiscal fourth quarter compared with the same quarter last year. Unit shipments dropped 19.7%, while fifth-wheel shipments fell 34.7%.

The motorized side also weakened during the quarter. North American motorized RV sales declined 10.4%, with unit shipments down 13.1%.

Dealers have also been cutting inventory. THOR reported that independent dealer inventory of its North American towable products was down 16% from a year earlier.

Those figures are wholesale shipments and manufacturer sales, not retail RV registrations. Still, they show manufacturers and dealers remaining cautious about how much new inventory they want sitting on lots.

Affordability is becoming a bigger part of the problem

THOR isn’t placing all of the blame on consumer confidence.

Martin said rising material costs and “heightened affordability concerns” put significant pressure on the company during the year. THOR says it is trying to protect attainable prices for buyers rather than simply passing every additional cost on to dealers and consumers, even if that means accepting lower profit margins in the short term.

“We directed those initiatives towards protecting attainable price points for consumers, accepting near-term margin pressure in exchange for long-term health of the business.”

THOR CEO Bob Martin

The company is also making some of the biggest changes in decades to how its North American RV businesses operate.

THOR historically allowed its RV manufacturers to operate largely independently. In February, it began reorganizing most of those companies into two larger operating groups, with plans for more shared purchasing, standardized operations, closer coordination of brands and products, and common data and digital systems.

Then in September, THOR expanded the restructuring. Former Jayco president Ken Walters was put in charge of all North American RV operations, giving THOR more centralized oversight across companies that had traditionally operated with considerable independence.

THOR says the broader restructuring and other initiatives should eventually remove more than $100 million in annual costs.

For buyers, the reasoning behind those changes may be just as interesting as the savings. THOR says reducing costs can help it address affordability without relying solely on higher RV prices to offset rising expenses.

THOR isn’t expecting a quick turnaround

Anyone waiting for THOR to call a major RV rebound in 2027 may have to keep waiting.

The company currently expects the RV retail market in fiscal 2027 to remain relatively flat compared with 2026, with many of the same economic pressures continuing in the near term.

THOR Chief Operating Officer Todd Woelfer was unusually direct about the current situation, describing the RV industry as being in an “extended down cycle.”

There are brighter spots. THOR’s European RV business grew during the quarter, and North American motorized sales were higher over the full fiscal year than in the fourth quarter alone.

But in North America, the recovery that manufacturers spent much of 2026 waiting for never materialized.

THOR is now heading into 2027 expecting another relatively flat retail market while restructuring how its North American companies operate, cutting costs and putting more emphasis on affordability.

For RV shoppers, that means the world’s largest RV manufacturer still sees price as one of the industry’s biggest problems to solve.