In an exclusive interview, Truck Camper Magazine talks with William J. “Bill” Rex about his acquisition of Lance Camper, and his vision for the company. Goal number one: Make Lance, Lance again.
Left to right: Paul Rex, VP, Bill Rex, President & CEO, Matthew Koverman, Executive Director of Operations
If you’ve followed the RV industry over the past few decades, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered the legacy of Bill Rex, even if his name doesn’t immediately ring a bell.
Bill’s roots in the RV world stretch back to 1969 when, fresh out of San Fernando High School, he and his brother first started a tree-trimming business. By age nineteen, he was drawn into the booming RV industry, landing a job on the production floor at Dolphin Camper Company.
He started on the production line puttying the staple holes at minimum wage $1.20 per hour, but it didn’t take him long to make an impression. Over thirteen years at Dolphin, Bill worked his way up every rung of the production ladder, becoming Plant Manager by 1983. In that role, he was responsible not just for keeping production on schedule but also for spearheading research and development.
In 1983, Bill was hired by the Establishment Industries, a struggling RV manufacturer on the brink of collapse. Bill’s leadership ignited dramatic growth. Over two years, he grew Establishment’s annual sales from about $5.5 million to $28 million, restored profitability, and positioned the company for its 1985 sale to Thor Industries. Bill stayed on as President for a year after the acquisition but, true to his entrepreneurial spirit, he soon set his sights on starting something of his own.
In 1986, Bill co-founded Rexhall Industries. Within two years of producing the first Airex motorhomes in 1987, Rexhall’s revenue skyrocketed from $17.4 million in 1988 to over $36 million in 1989, with profits quadrupling in just one year. That success led Bill to buy out his partner and take Rexhall public in June 1989, raising over $6 million to fuel expansion. By this point, the company was building and selling around eighty motorhomes per month through a network of more than fifty dealers across twenty-two states.
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Bill oversaw Rexhall’s growth with an eye on innovation and cost-effective manufacturing. He added a chassis-building plant at Rexhall’s Lancaster, California campus, and introduced features like unibody steel cage frames and the first ever “Trex” full-body slide-outs. He went on to be awarded a design patent on dual full-body side rooms. By 2003, Rexhall had earned accolades as one of the hottest public companies under $150 million in sales.
As a result of the housing crisis of 2008 to 2013, the motorized RV industry all but collapsed west of the Mississipi. During that time, Fleetwood, Monaco, Weekend Warrior, Alpha Leisure, National RV, and Western Rec all stopped production. Rexhall also took a beating when BYD America offered to put Rexhall’s laid off employees back to work. Bill sold the manufacturing facility to BYD Bus & Coach becoming their President and General Manager. He eventually put over 500 employees back to work.
After retiring from BYD, Bill had a short stint in 2020 as President of the EV Bus & Motor-Home Division at Imperium Motor Company, a division of DSG Global. This led to Bill and a friend, along with his son, starting Vision Kore Inc.
In late June, Bill Rex acquired Lance Camper Manufacturing and became President and CEO of the company. In the following exclusive interview, we talked to Bill about his decision to acquire Lance and his vision for one of the RV world’s most iconic brands.
What’s the back story behind your acquisition of Lance Camper? What inspired you to take the helm?
I’ve been close friends with Jack Cole—who built Lance Camper into an industry icon—for decades. In fact, we were both plant managers at the same time. He was at Lance. I was at Dolphin. So I’ve always known what was going on at Lance.
From conversations with Jack, and employees of mine who work at Lance, I knew they had fallen into trouble after REV Group bought the company. That situation got worse and worse over time.
At the same time I was prototyping a Class B Mercedes Sprinter van under the name Vision Kore. I was trying to talk REV Group into working with us to possibly build it at the Lance facility. At the time, I was a shareholder at REV Group and thought the project would help Lance.
When Lance came up for sale, I saw it as a great opportunity. That got me talking with REV Group and eventually we were able to put a deal together.
Is Jack Cole—the previous President of Lance Campers before the 2018 acquisition by REV Group—involved in any way?
Not financially, but he is our landlord. I asked him if he wanted to be financially involved and his words were, “My money is good where it’s at”.
Later a friend said, “Why don’t you see if you can hire Jack as a consultant?” I said, “Why would I hire him when I can invite him over for lunch once a week and pick his brain?” (laughs)
Lance enthusiasts will be very pleased to hear Jack is still connected to the company.
I was just talking to Jack because we need to drill a hole in the side of the building to install a new dust collector. Remembering that he and Jeff still own the buildings, I sent him a picture of where we needed to drill. He said, “Let’s talk before you do that.” (laughs)
Jack and Jeff Souleles still live in the area and care about Lance Campers, its customers, and its legacy. They are both a phone call away to help us with anything.
Will Lance’s operations in Lancaster, California remain unchanged?
Yes. It’s a great facility. Everything is here.
What is it going to take to get Lance back on track?
Lance just needs some real leadership. Under the REV Group, they went through a half-dozen different managers. As we were putting the Lance deal together, I asked the HR director, “I imagine morale is low”. She said, “No. It’s confused. We never know what’s going on.”
I believe Lance Camper is a diamond in the rough. There are three or four employees, including Gary Conley, that have been with Lance over forty years. Some of my old employees still work here. There’s a lot to do to make things right, but we’re very exited about the opportunity. We’re using the term, “Make Lance, Lance again.”
Yes. That’s exactly what Lance fans want to hear.
Lance was out of the REV Group’s norm. Their other companies are all motorized. I also don’t think they appreciated the Lance name and brand. They didn’t keep Jack Cole or Jeff Souleles on as consultants after the transition. And their biggest mistake was that they kept putting in the wrong people at Lance—especially the first manager they installed. I think REV is a great company and we wouldn’t be here without them. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work.
REV didn’t service their dealers the way Lance used to. They didn’t take care of service and warranty. They literally shut down the service and warranty building that Lance had for service, warranty, and parts. It was a big expense, so the REV Group manager shut it down. That was a big part of what made Lance ‘Lance’. We can’t reopen the building because now it’s leased, but we are taking part of the shop—where they used to have service, warranty, and parts—and starting that up again.
Then, they started closing at 2:30pm. Then, they got a new phone system that made it hard to get hold of someone. They weren’t looking after the basics. My saying is, “The sales are made at the campground.” We need to get the basics right to earn that back.
That will be music to the ears of Lance enthusiasts. What message do you have for current Lance owners who might be concerned about changes under the new ownership?
The first thing I want to say is, “Thank you for buying our product”. Second, I want Lance owners to know we will be there for them.
One of the first things Gary said was, “We need to make sure we’re taking care of the club.” That means making sure we have parts, service, and warranty. We’re going to bring back the Lance Owners rally. We can’t do everything at once, but this is where we’re focused. There will be someone answering the phone at Lance.
That’s fundamental.
Right. I could not believe that Lance was closing and not answering the phones at 2:30 pm. The hours were 6:00 am to 2:30 pm. If you called at 2:40 pm, you could not get an answer.
We are going to make sure someone is available to answer the phone during normal business hours 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. The receptionist at a company is a very important person. They need to know the team, be able to reach the right people, and have the clout to make sure customer and dealers’ needs and questions are handled.
Lance has long been known for truck campers and travel trailers. Do you plan to continue with both product categories?
Yes. That’s what we need to do to make Lance ‘Lance’ again. Truck campers and trailers are our first priority. You know, I started in truck campers. Gary told me you started in a Lance model 1030.
Yes, we did. The Lance 1030 was a fantastic camper. We’ve been telling Lance to bring that camper back for years.
I’ll look into that model.
Lance has taken a bit of a hit in terms of quality, customer service, and warranty support under REV Group. What’s your plan to attack that perception?
Doing what we’re doing right now. Making sure we answer the phone. Making sure people are getting the parts they need. Handling the basics. We’ll address it one customer at a time, one dealer at a time.
It starts with the dealers. We are reaching out to them asking what do they need, and what haven’t we been doing right. I literally plan on calling every dealer myself to talk to them about what’s been going on, and how I can help. We need to get the dealers excited about Lance again.
Jack was always ahead of his time for our industry. He always spent money where others did not—on equipment and technology. Lance was one of the first RV manufacturers to have CNC machines. We need to do all of the little things to make sure the products we build right now are built right.
My son, Paul, grew up in the business. He’s on our production line everyday now. One of the managers told him today that he’s already been in the plant more than all the old manager group combined. He said the old group rarely came out to the plant.
That’s so telling.
Now my son—as Vice President of Lance Camper—is in plant all day. I’m also regularly out in the plant, just as Jack Cole was.
Are you making any immediate changes to design, materials, manufacturing, or quality control?
We’ve made some changes with purchasing and quality control. Gary has a list a mile long of changes we need to implement. We’re only shipping three to four units a day right now. My son is personally checking every completed unit before it leaves the building.
You’ve already teased a Lance Class B motorhome. Is that definitely something we’re going to see?
Yes. We built some Class B prototypes on Mercedes chassis. That’s what we’re working toward, but not before getting the Lance truck campers and trailers right.
The Class B is going to be everything Lance does now, but in a van. It will have Lance cabinets, Lance furniture, Lance quality, and something the marketplace has never seen before! We believe it will change the industry.
As someone who started on the factory floor at Dolphin, what lessons from those early days do you still carry into your leadership style today?
I started out puttying holes for minimum wage—$1.20 an hour. The first thing I learned is that I didn’t like that job (laughs).
To answer your question, this is a people business. You’re only as good as the people around you. I learned that way back at Dolphin.
Where do you see Lance Camper in five years?
This might not be the right thing to say, but I’m really not thinking five years down the road right now. I’m thinking, get things back to normal. Get it going. “Make Lance ‘Lance’ again.
Now that Lance is no longer a publicly held company, we don’t answer to shareholders. We answer to our customers—they’re our shareholders! And now we have the freedom to get Lance back to being Lance!
For decades, Lance was the golden staple of campers. That’s what we want and that’s what we’re all working towards.
For more information about Lance Camper, visit LanceCamper.com. Click here to get a free Lance Camper brochure.
