RV maker ramps up growth with plant in Cambridge
WATERLOO REGION — About two years ago, a staff of 250 was producing Roadtrek camper vans from the firm’s longtime home on Kitchener’s Shirley Avenue.
A lot has changed in a short time for the Kitchener company. New owners and a new name. New investments, and many more employees. A second state-of-the-art production facility in Cambridge.
It’s all given president and chief executive officer Jim Hammill reason to smile.
“We’re one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country right now,” he says. “We’re doing it with technology and sustainable investment.”
Hammill and his colleagues — now numbering about 750 and counting in Waterloo Region — welcomed new owners last year, as Roadtrek Motorhomes owner Industrial Opportunity Partners sold the business to Germany’s Erwin Hymer Group.
For the European firm, the move opened the door to an extensive North American market, and paved the way for the introduction of brands and styles that had previously only been seen overseas.
Production of the popular Roadtrek series of camper vans — also called Class B motorhomes, they’re built on Mercedes-Benz, Ram and Chevrolet chassis — remains at the renamed Erwin Hymer Group North America facility on Shirley Avenue.
This week, the company officially opens its new manufacturing plant on Reuter Drive in Cambridge, where workers are producing Canadian-made vehicles bearing the Hymer brand and other names that hail from Europe. The Cambridge site will also build the new Hymer Touring lightweight travel trailers.
“We’re changing our manufacturing process to be more efficient here,” says marketing manager Lisa Phillips.
Housed in a former BlackBerry building, the 255,000-square foot facility features production lines, office space, and engineering and research and development areas. There are plans to set up a showroom just inside the main entrance, and to construct on-site repair bays. By the end of October, Hammill says two production lines will be up and running, with plans to add three more within the next 18 months or so.
While extensive renovations were needed to transform the former BlackBerry repair centre, it was built to accommodate technology. Lots of land and proximity to Highway 401
also made it an attractive location.
“The goal was to keep it within the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area, because of the number of employees that we have here,” says Hammill’s executive assistant, Brenda Loube.
“The region is known for technology, so it fits really well for us,” adds Phillips.
The optional EcoTrek lithium power module and the VoltStart system that automatically starts the engine to recharge low batteries enable owners to virtually go off the grid.
“Instead of going to a trailer park or a provincial park, they can go wherever and be selfsufficient,” says Loube.
And with an eye on the future, Erwin Hymer Group North America is participating in the first automated vehicle pilot program in the country, testing a camper van at different levels of automation on public roads.
There are also plans to renovate the Shirley Avenue facility, and to expand into another site in Kitchener by the end of this year that will accommodate some manufacturing along with sub-assembly and warehousing. Some of those functions are currently housed at a different Kitchener location. The company workforce could reach 1,500 within a couple of years, Hammill predicts. Hammill says the company has spent about $50 million to date on expansion, with another $25 million or so to go. The Roadtrek business dates to 1974 with the founding of Home & Park Vehicles. A year later, it was purchased by a customer, Jac Hanemaayer, who designed many of the features that came to be synonymous with the Roadtrek brand.
“We’ve really embraced the whole German acquisition of us, and so have they,” Hammill says. “It’s the best of both worlds.”