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RV Business magazine's "newsmaker of the year" honor has become an annual award for Keystone RV Co. President Cole Davis.
Last year, Davis won when Keystone became the industry's leading fifth-wheel seller.
This year, he won when the company became the biggest travel trailer seller and figured in the industry'-, biggest transaction ever - a $145 million merger with Thor Industries that created a $1.2 billion company.
Davis, 53, a one-time Thor employee who assembled investors and workers to create Keystone in May 1996, credits a customer-based business model and a cooperative management team with the company's success.
Keystone skyrocketed from $11 million its first year to $400 million in sales in 2000, a time when some other RV companies were suffering declines of 20 percent.
Davis believes a generational shift in the market will smooth the industry's once-wide seasonal and year-to-year swings.
Buyers are typically between 45 and 60 years old. Ten to 15 years ago, they had grown up in the Great Depression and learned frugal habits. Today, baby boomers aging into that market are less cash-dependent.
"The baby boomers we're dealing with have more money, have credit available, aren't afraid to use the credit,...