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Old 02-15-2007, 10:42 PM   #1
The Newell
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Default Newell Maintains Focus on Innovation and Amenities

Newell Maintains Focus on Innovation and Amenities
Oklahoma Motorhome Manufacturer Consistently Runs a Backlog of About a Year

Bob Ashley
RV Business
Monday, February 12, 2007

Newell coaches are available in lengths from 39 to 45 feet. Company's proprietary chassis is equipped with 23-degree rear-steer tag axles.
When it comes to building upscale Class A motorhomes, few manufacturers reach the level of Newell Coach Corp., which builds and services diesel pushers that cost $1 million-and-up in the small northeast Oklahoma community of Miami (pop: 13,000).

"We are the most expensive true Class A motorhome in the business," Newell President Karl Blade proudly states -- and with good reason. Newell builds its coaches from the chassis on up, then fills them with unexpected features and amenities.

"The one thing that has kept the company at the top through the years is its history of innovation," Blade said. "In real estate, it's location, location, location. In the motorhome business, it's product, product, product. If you've got someone who is going to pay $1 million for a motorhome, it's what is in it that causes them to get excited and trade up from another motorhome -- or even from a 2-year-old Newell."

Newell coaches, for instance, boast 90-inch-high ceilings that allow for the installation of a Murphy bed. "Nobody else is doing it," Blade said, "because a bus doesn't have enough headroom. It's like having a den in the coach."

Looking back, L.K. Newell first broached the motorhome business in 1967 after buying a then top-of-the-line Streamline motorhome. Returning to Streamline's California factory from his Oklahoma home for a few corrections, he shared some suggestions to improve the coach with the company's owner, who posed a challenge: "If you're so damned smart," he opined, "why don't you buy the motorhome operation from me?"

The deal was struck within hours, and L.K. Newell founded Newell Coach Corp., moving it to Miami, Okla. Streamline, meanwhile, evolved into a towable-only manufacturer before going out of business in the early 1970s.

Newell, for his part, claimed credit for designing the first rear-engine motorhomes and for introducing diesel engines to the motorized RV arena.

According to the company, Newell built the first rear-engine Newell coach in 1969 on a Madson gas-powered bus chassis. A year later, L.K. Newell designed and built his own from-scratch diesel pusher featuring a semi-monocoque chassis that eliminated frame rails between the front and rear axles, maximizing under-floor storage space.

"He (L.K. Newell) had a lot of street smarts," said Blade. "He figured out long before anyone else did that a diesel pusher was far superior than any other configuration."

Karl Blade, Newell's president, takes pride in the fact that the company builds the most-expensive Class A luxury motorhomes in the market.
Newell coaches commanded premiums from the very beginning. "Back in the late '60s, when you could buy a Winnebago for $5,000, a Newell would cost $15,000," Blade said. Blade contends that because Newell coaches are built from the ground up on the company's own chassis, they differ substantially from their closest competition, pricewise -- Prevost bus conversions and Bluebird Wanderlodges.

"The most important difference today is that we can offer larger slideouts which can be positioned and sized to achieve the floorplan that our customer wants, instead of trying to fit the floorplan around pre-existing slideouts," Blade said, while noting that factory-built bus shells are limited to a maximum of two pre-configured slideouts.

The Newell chassis also is equipped with 23-degree, rear-steer tag axles that increase the coach's maneuverability.

Blade became Newell's owner almost in the same way that L.K. Newell founded the company. A Chevrolet dealer in Mt. Vernon, Wash., Blade also sold motorhomes because they were his hobby. While driving through Oklahoma in a new Bluebird in 1979, Blade stopped to visit Newell's factory. "The Newell was not a bus," he said, "and it offered features that I'd never seen before."

Three months later, he bought the company.

Blade said that he's never considered moving the factory from Oklahoma. "By the time that I got involved," he recollected, "the workforce here was so well-trained that it would be virtually impossible to duplicate if I tried to pick this up and move it somewhere."

Although it may appear otherwise, Blade also noted that there is no downside to being isolated from the general RV-manufacturing communities in Indiana, California and Oregon. "We can afford to pay the highest manufacturing wage in the business and other RV companies can't raid us for employees," he said.

Employees at Newell work four 10-hour shifts per week. "Employees love to have the three-day weekend, and it gives us a lot more flexibility if we need to work overtime when something comes up," Blade said.

Blade spends the winter selling Newell coaches while staying at Outdoor Resorts in Indio, Calif. "There are 800 sites in two resorts across the street from each other, and all of them contain expensive motorhomes," he said.

As you might suspect, Newell coaches are popular on the NASCAR circuit, where Newell owners include NASCAR luminaries Jimmy Johnson, Dale Earnhart Jr. and legendary team owner Roger Penske.

Newell requires four months to complete a coach and claims that no two are totally alike.
Although the RV industry -- particularly the Class A motorhome sector -- has been a little rocky lately, the soft market hasn't affected Newell. "We run a backlog of about a year -- always," Blade said. "We also build some stock coaches to put on the lot for the spot buyer, and we also usually have 15 used coaches in stock -- we couldn't sell the new ones if we didn't take trade-ins."

Newell sells factory-direct because of the close communication necessary between manufacturer and end-user when building and servicing a $1 million-plus motorhome. "The communication needs to be very good to figure out what the customer wants within our capabilities," Blade said. "We can't have misunderstandings where the dealer tells the client we'll build a coach a certain way and it doesn't show up at the dealership the way the client wanted it built."

Although Newell can build coaches as short as 39 feet, most Newell motorhomes are 45 feet long because of weight, powertrain and cost considerations.

Meanwhile, Blade said the Jan. 1 transition to cleaner-burning diesel engines won't cause Newell major concerns. "The exhaust is hotter, that's for sure. We will deal with it," he said. "We don't know what all the challenges are yet. Still, every time there has been a change in engine technology, there has been some fear about the effect, but we've always been able to accommodate it successfully."
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Old 02-16-2007, 03:05 AM   #2
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Excellent article!!!
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Old 03-11-2007, 08:03 PM   #3
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Yes another great article.
»»» 'NewellClassic.com' ««««««««~»»»»»»»» 'NewellClassic.com' «««
Joseph,
Wanted to add to your 'exposé' the three photos that complement the article :


1st ~ The President of Newell Coach, Karl Blade


2nd ~ The Making Of


3rd ~ The President and Craftsmen Pièce de Résistance ; 'The Newell Coach'

------------------
May God Bless
KC
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