On Wednesday, more than 600 people turned out for the grand opening of Erwin Hymer Group North America’s (EHGNA) second facility in Ontario, Canada. Employees from the Roadtrek Motorhome plant a couple miles away came for the dedication, as well as Hymer associates from Germany and England, and members of the Canadian parliament like Sen. Victor Oh.
“We have almost doubled our employees, so we have experienced tremendous growth,” said Lisa Phillips, marketing manager for EHGNA.
Talking on the Class B manufacturer’s growth was Martin Brandt, CEO of Erwin Hymer Group, who noted how the company totaled $2.5 billion by August – a growth rate of 35 percent over last year.
“Six thousand people working with us in our group, this is 1,000 people more than last year,” said Brandt. “And we doubled the sales in the last three years. This was really a record year for us … and of course the next year will be a record year for us. Also, welcome to the grand opening of our new factory today is an important day for EHGNA and for Erwin Hymer group in total.”
The new production lines are state-of-the-art for streamlined manufacturing, focusing on building the Aktiv brand from Hymer Group and the Touring model – both of which are built on the RAM ProMaster chassis. Manufacturing has begun on the Aktiv and Aktiv 2.0.
Hymer’s first towable trailer, the lightweight Touring (available in Germany) will be out next year with some changes made for the North America market. A prototype for the surprisingly large, capable-of-fitting-a-king-size-bed towable has recently been finalized, and will be seen at some of the manufacturer’s future shows.
“With our new site, we are able to install the capacity we need to fulfill the market requirements we have created in the last months,” said Brandt. “Think always as Benjamin Franklin said: ‘Well done is better than well said.’ This is exactly what you do here. Keeping this in mind, I wish EHG North America and all its employees, all the best for the future.”
As a sort of statement on the company’s prospects, EHGNA’s autonomous RV will have a home at the new facility where more tests and updates are being done.
“We are the first RV manufacturer, probably in the world, approved to test an autonomous RV on public roads,” said Philips. Collaborating with EHGNA in this pursuit are students and professors from the University of Waterloo. “There is no shortage of people that can assist us in being leaders in technology in the RV industry.”
