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Meet Rory Willett, President of R.C. Willet Co. / Northstar. His journey has been full of surprise twists, challenging decisions, and remarkable opportunities.
Rory Willett, President of R.C. Willet Co. / Northstar, may not fit your pre-conceived notions of what a truck camper company President is like. First of all, Rory is very hands-on, down-to-earth, and approachable. With Rory, there’s no ivory tower and no pretensions. But make no mistake, Rory is in charge and moving his third-generation family business aggressively forward. Our interview with Rory traces his roots from running around the factory as a boy to taking the helm as President. As it turns out, his journey has been full of surprise twists, challenging decisions, and remarkable opportunities.
The Willett family camping at Bushy Creek State Park
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Rory Willett fishing with his dad and brother
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The Willetts hold onto their hats on a family fishing trip
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TCM: What are your earliest memories of being at Northstar?
Rory: I grew up here. When I was an infant, I actually lived on the lot in a little mobile home. I remember being thrown up in the air by the production guys when I was four or five. I used to make toy boats from leftover wood scraps. I also got yelled at by the cabinet guys because I didn’t put tools away.
One of the guys who yelled at me, Kenny, is still working here. He’ll be 65 years old this week. That just shows what kind of company my dad had. He’s had employees here a long time.
TCM: How old were you when the family got you involved with the business?
Rory: When I was a junior in high school, I was working in the summer full-time and I went to the spring RV shows. In 1975, I was getting a real paycheck as a parts runner. I had a little tractor and supplied people with what they needed for the day. We were making fourteen or fifteen toppers at a time, so I would set them out on blocks in the yard. At that point, they had just built the manufacturing facility we’re in now. I had a shop set up to make topper slide-in floors that sold with the toppers. It was in the old shop, so I worked alone that summer assembling the floors along with my other duties. College life wasn’t for me, so I came back and was a driver delivering toppers and campers within our 250-mile radius.
TCM: Did you always know that you would be taking over the family business?
Rory: No, not at all. Everything was just a progression. My older brother was working here, my sister was the receptionist, and my dad was the President. All four boys, plus seven to ten employees were working here. I was just making cabinets.
One day my dad just put a paper in front of me. It was a letter of resignation from my brother. That’s when dad asked me to work in the front office. I said, “What if I don’t?” and he said, “Then I guess we’ll have to shut her down”.
TCM: Wow. No pressure or anything.
Rory: It was a lot of pressure. I had two young daughters. I didn’t want to see the company close. It was also weird in that a lot of the guys had been working with me and now they were working for me. I had to develop thick skin. I do realize that I can’t do what I do without them. I always try to follow the golden rule and try to do the right thing.
At the time I took over, I didn’t even know the President of our bank because I was still just building cabinets. It was baptism by fire. I just jumped right into it. The good thing was that it was something I had grown up with. I knew the suppliers. All the guys in the industry that I had grown up with became great assets. It’s all about the relationships you make inside the industry.
TCM: Have you run Northstar as your father did, or have you moved the company in new directions since you took over the company?
Rory: Growing the business would be the only change of direction. Shipping units coast to coast was first and international exports were next. When I took over, we were still Texson. I was the one who went and purchased Northstar. My brother Rex and my dad didn’t want me to purchase Northstar because we already had our own pop-tops and toppers, but I knew we had to buy Northstar.
Buying Northstar was a good move. Before we became Northstar, people outside our 300-mile radius were asking us if we were from Texas. A dealer in Colorado actually told us that he couldn’t sell the Texsons, so we took the Texson decals off and put the Northstar decals on. He sold them, so we dropped the Texson name and went with Northstar.
When we told my grandmom, she started crying. I showed her the sales figures and told her that we would have a page dedicated to her husband, Tex, in our brochure. After seeing that, she felt better about the change.
TCM: We’ve seen that in your brochure. Tell us about a typical workday for you.
Rory: First, I have to feed the cats, Max and Elmo.
TCM: That sounds familiar.
Rory: Max and Elmo meet me at the door every morning. I don’t particularly like cats, but if I don’t do feed them, they’ll get in my way and I can’t walk. They meow so loud outside the door I can barely hear.
Then, I talk with the production team, walk the production line, answer emails, handle purchasing, fill out requisitions, and complete purchase orders. I also get incoming inventories put away, help load the containers and trailers going out, vacuum floors and clean the bathroom when needed. You guys have seen me mow the lawn.
TCM: Can you ever put the job down?
Rory: Not really. We’ll go to Menard’s or Home Depot to get a ceiling fan for our house and I’m looking to see if they have plywood on sale to build support boxes for our container shipments or cleaning supplies for our shop. I’m always thinking about Northstar.
I have never regretted doing this. They say do what you like, and like what you do. I just really like this. If someone came in and gave me the “golden check”, I might go to Alaska and Australia on a non-working trip, but then I’d come back and start building again. I love to build things. The smell of the sawdust hitting you is just great.
TCM: Are you sure it isn’t the glue?
Rory: It might be (laughs).
TCM: What are your biggest challenges as President of Northstar?
Rory: In years of growth, the challenges are that we have so many orders and we need to find good quality workers to keep things going. And we need to keep the benefits and wages competitive so we don’t lose key people.
Now, things have flipped. Now, I wish I had more healthy dealers. We find that the dealers who are surviving this recession are the family dealerships. They are the ones who are making the tough choices to survive the economy.
It’s also hard surviving in a family business with Rex and I being brothers here. That’s always a challenge, to have family politics mixed with the business. And my dad had a stroke, which has rattled our family. One way I deal with it is I focus on this business he started.
TCM: Your family has had a very difficult year. We’re thinking of you, Rex, and your parents here at TCM. Tell us about your personal Northstar camper.
Rory: I’m old school. I’ve gone from an eleven-footer to a ten-and-a-half to a nine-and-a-half footer. I’ve had to squish things. I made the overhead cabinets lower, giving me more storage. I’m a relatively short guy and I don’t need the headroom over the dinette. We try to introduce different features and floorplans in my camper. Some things we try you’ll see on our line, while others are too customized. Those don’t see standard production, but it keeps us on the learning curve. If you don’t try things, you will never know. It’s like having a “one of a kind” camper.
TCM: And your truck?
Rory: I have one ton Dodge dually. I pull my boat. I like to boondock and bring the boat with me to the campsite. I like to camp so close to the water that I need to check the Mississippi now and then to make sure we’re not floating away.
TCM: Tell us about your most recent adventure in your Northstar.
Rory: Last time I went truck camping was last fall. For the last four or five years, I have gone camping in October and last year that ran into November. Sometimes my wife goes, but I often go by myself. I camp for complete relaxation.
Last summer I went six or seven times with my folks. My older brother, Ricky, has a 9.5 Igloo and we took mom and dad out fishing. It was the first time dad caught a fish with artificial bait. He caught a big bass and was thrilled. Last summer’s memories are very vivid in my mind. You just never know when it’s going to be your last. There are no guarantees for tomorrow.
TCM: Rex likes to say, “How many summers do you have left?” He’s so right. Many folks don’t know about your impressive toy truck camper collection. Any recent acquisitions?
Rory: For years I have been looking for the camper that I had when I was four or five years old. This whole thing started the first time I went on eBay. I clicked on truck camper and saw the toy camper that I had as a kid. I wanted to put a bid on it, but I didn’t have an eBay account, so I didn’t get to it in time. I’ve never seen my camper on there since. As I wait to find my childhood camper, I buy other campers that show up on eBay.
TCM: It’s a nice collection. Maybe someone will send in pictures of their toy truck campers and we’ll find your long lost toy. What’s been your strategy to get Northstar through this challenging economy?
Rory: Right now the strategy is to stay the course and to keep our quality level up. Everyone wants to go back to the basics or use cheap materials. We’ve actually had some dealers ask if we could just have a sleeper unit with no furnace or jacks. I resist that because historically they won’t sell too many of them.
The mainstay of truck camper people are the fun-loving type that want a nice refrigerator, a fantastic fan, jacks, etc. The temptation to go back cheap is hard to resist sometimes. We’re just keeping the quality up and we’re working with the dealers. We’re all in this together.
TCM: We sure are, industry and consumers alike. How’s Australia and Europe holding up for you?
Rory: Europe is holding its own really well. Truck campers have been sold there for a while, but pop-tops are new to them. There is a lot of interest and excitement in our pop-tops there. They have questions if you can do this or that with certain trucks.
France and Germany are up and coming for Northstar. England is steady. Australia took an economic hit like us, but they are the only developed country that showed positive gains the first quarter this year. They are ahead of us in the economic rebound, but are paying higher interest rates. Don’t get me started on that.
TCM: Okay, we won’t. Why did you launch a Facebook page for Northstar?
Rory: I’m not on very often. I use it to announce when we have a new video on YouTube and you probably saw Rex’s “monkey cam”. I can’t believe how great of a tool Facebook is for a good line of communication. It’s a little scary to me because I’m not used to it yet.
TCM: Any new products in development for 2010?
Rory: Right now I’m looking at my desk. I have a desk pad with graph paper. It has two floor plans on it. One is for a new hard-wall, the other is for a new pop-up.
TCM: What's your vision for Northstar in the next five to ten years?
Rory: That’s a good question. I’ve asked myself that. Rex’s oldest son, Ryan, is getting involved. It’s his first summer on the lawn mower and he’s going through forklift training. I don’t see myself doing anything different. Rex and I will probably be doing the same thing. I am wondering, in the next few years, what kind of trucks are going to be out there and capable of hauling truck campers. We will make a camper for whatever is available.
TCM: Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you want included in your interview?
Rory: I just want people to know that it boils down to the golden rule. We want to make everyone’s camping experience happy. Rex and I have made mistakes. When we make 500 to 600 campers a year, there are going to be errors. It’s how you handle those situations that makes your company’s reputation. We like to do the right thing for our customers.
TCM: Thank you for the time Rory.
Rory: Tell Harley I said hello.
TCM: Will do.
For more information about R.C. Willett Co. / Northstar Campers visit their website at www.northstarcampers.com.
If you liked this article, check out:
Northstar Campers Part 1: Strength Through Diversity
Rory and Rex Willett have moved Northstar beyond the domestic RV market to become a world-wide player.
Northstar Campers Part 2: Two Lines Running
We take a walk down Northstar's production lines with Rex Willett and ask the big questions. Like, do you have to build a camper upside down to pass Australian building codes?
Rex Willett of Northstar
Rex Willett of Northstar Campers is something of a living icon in the truck camping industry. So who is this Rex Willett and what's his story?
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