The caravan and mobile home manufacturer Knaus Tabbert from Jandelsbrunn, near Passau, wants to pause production at its headquarters in Lower Bavaria and in Nagyoroszi, Hungary.
“The board of directors of Knaus Tabbert AG decided today to stop production at the locations in Jandelsbrunn and Nagyoroszi, Hungary, from November 18, 2024 until the end of the year,” the company announced. The majority of the approximately 4,000 employees are employed in the two plants.
Mottgers and Schlüsselfeld not affected
The aim is to reduce production quantities and thus bring inventory at dealer level to an economically sustainable level and to reduce our own inventories. In addition to the two plants in Hungary and Lower Bavaria, Knaus Tabbert also produces caravans in Mottgers in Hesse and luxury motorhomes in Schlüsselfeld near Bamberg (Upper Franconia). These two locations are not affected by the production break, said a company spokesman.
The most recent sales target of 1.3 billion euros for 2024, which was already significantly reduced compared to the beginning of the year, will therefore be clearly missed, it said. Last year the company achieved sales of 1.4 billion euros.
The company had already had to issue two profit warnings this year. CEO Wolfgang Speck left the motorhome manufacturer on October 31st. Since then, Werner Vaterl has led the company as interim CEO.
Stock collapses
The RV maker’s shares plummeted after the announcement of production stops. The price fell by 33 percent to 13.12 euros by the end of trading. This continued the downward trend of the past weeks and months. This year the price fell by just over 70 percent.
The company has been listed on the stock exchange since September 2020. The issue price was 58 euros. In the first few months, the share was in high demand due, among other things, to the caravanning boom during the Corona period. In April 2021, the price reached its peak at almost 74 euros – since then it has been going down little by little.
The company lowered its forecast in July and October, thereby causing significant price declines. At the end of October, the investment bank Jefferies canceled its buy rating, causing further losses.
In spring 2021, the company was valued at almost 800 million euros. The level is far away after the significant decline this year. The company currently only has a market value of just over 130 million euros. 41 percent of the shares belong to the Dutch investment company HTP. A quarter of the shares are owned by Catalina Capital Partners.