Sounds like Mike and Rene are going to still be doing the big rigs and StoryTeller will do the Adventure Trucks. They might actually be able to produce them for sale at a lower price if they can streamline the operation. I think there might be a good market for the small AT around $250 or less. I mean lots of people are paying $200 for vans.
However, the dynamics of one entrepreneur buying out another entrepreneur will make it untenable (or undesirable) for Mike and Rene to remain in their position for more than a honeymoon period. There can only be one boss. Can you imagine Mike and Rene being employees at their former business, taking orders from Alabama? Ya, me neither.
The whole idea of a buyout is to streamline the new operation and to get rid of duplication. After all you have to pay for the acquisition with increased profitability and reduced costs of the acquired company.
Storyteller and their accountants must have discovered inefficiencies and leveraging opportunities during their due diligence. Typically one of the biggest inefficiencies is the salary of the owner of the company being acquired.
And yes I agree, there is an unserved market right now for a production expedition vehicle that is priced between the $175,000 top of the line Storyteller van and the $500,000++ cost of an EarthCruiser or Earth Roamer, if it’s possible to build such a rig at that price point in today’s supply challenged market.
Here’s what I think is going to happen. Storyteller‘s business model is to sell a four vehicle line of vans though a nationwide network of RV dealers. I suspect that GXV’s Missouri facility will be retooled to build a cost sensitive expedition-like vehicle that will be supported by these same RV dealers. I’m going to call it the “Winnebago EKKO killer”. No more one-off custom dream rigs from GXV I’d say.
We shall see what happens!
