Who Owns Winnebago Industries: 7 Facts You Should Know (Explained)

Have you ever wondered who owns Winnebago Industries? Look no more. We´ve got you covered.

One thing that we see discussed a lot is the ownership of Winnebago Industries. On this page, we figured that we would clear up a few things about the ownership of the company.

You can think of these as some facts on the ownership of Winnebago Industries, as well as a little bit of an overview of the actual history of the company.

So, who owns Winnebago Industries? The major shareholders of Winnebago Industries are:

• BlackRock Fund Advisors owns 14.20%

• The Vanguard Group, inc. owns 6.45%

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LLP owns 4.94%

• Cooke and Biler owns 4,65%

• Fisher Asset Management LLC owns 4.17%

• JP Morgan owns 4%

Remember, the ownership of a company, particularly a public company like Winnebago, can change on a day-to-day basis.

Although, if there was a major shift in the ownership of Winnebago, then you would probably know. It would be heavily reported.

Table of Contents

The History of Winnebago Industries

One of the more confusing things about Winnebago Industries’ ownership is that it really isn’t a company that popped out of nowhere.

You know, the sort of business where there is a clear single owner right at the start. This owner then works their butt off to create a multi-million dollar business.

The ownership of this business has been rather convoluted from the beginning.

We know that John K. Hanson in 1958 was the one that came up with the idea for Winnebago. He then pulled in a team of 5 other people that wanted to bring this idea forward too.

👉 The 6 of them decided to convince a business Modernistic Industries to open up a factor where their idea for an RV could be manufactured.

So, by this point, you have 6 people and Modernistic Industries involved in the ownership of the company. This is before a single product has been launched.

👉 The aim of the business wasn’t even to deliver whopping amounts of profit. Instead, the area where this company was built was going through an economic downturn, so the group just wanted to make a few jobs for the area and maybe make a bit of profit on the side.

👉 It wasn’t long before the unique business started to take off, though. In 1960, the business was sold onto five more people. John K. Hanson lost his stake, but he remained the President.

So, in four years, the ownership had changed from the original owners to a new set of owners. Around this time, the company changed its name to Winnebago Industries.

They still hadn’t produced anything other than a travel trailer and some minor tech at this point, though. It wasn’t until 1966 that Winnebago Industries created its first RV…and history was made.

In 1970, Winnebago became a public company. This, of course, leads us onto the next section on talking about who actually owns Winnebago Industries:

Major Shareholders in Winnebago Industries

What we are going to do in this section is go through some of the companies that have a stake in Winnebago Industries.

The information that is included in this section is up-to-date as of 28th March 2021. The very nature of a PLC company means that these stakes could change.

By the time 29th March 2021 rolls around, these companies could have drastically changed the amount of money they have wrapped up in Winnebago.

Thankfully, it shouldn’t take too much effort searching online to find the major shareholders of Winnebago Industries:

BlackRock Fund Advisors owns 14.20%
The Vanguard Group, inc. owns 6.45%
Dimensional Fund Advisors LLP owns 4.94%
Cooke and Biler owns 4,65%
Fisher Asset Management LLC owns 4.17%
JP Morgan owns 4%

Beyond this, you have various mutual funds that own stakes in Winnebago Industries.

Basically, all of the major investors in the company are some sort of investment company. They act on behalf of the people that invest in them. As a result, you will never really get a full overview of who specifically owns the company.

It is kept murky. In fact, we bet that many of the people investing in these funds do not actually know that their money is going into purchasing Winnebago Industries shares!

Winnebago is a Public Company

Winnebago is a public company (PLC). In the United States, it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the name WGO.

👉 So, what does this mean? Well, it means that Winnebago does not really have a single owner. It has thousands of them.

Everybody that ówns a share in Winnebago is technically an owner of Winnebago.

You could go out tomorrow, purchase a share in the company, and you would be able to tell everybody you own Winnebago. It probably wouldn’t be the ‘right’ thing to do, but it is legally true.

👉 This means that the ownership of Winnebago can be somewhat murky. You can never say for certain 100% who owns Winnebago.

Things are made a bit more complicated by the fact that many of the people that have a stake in the company are going through certain investment funds.

This means that while we can tell you that BlackRock Fund Advisors owns 14% of Winnebago Industries, we cannot tell you who is investing in BlackRock Fund Advisors.

👉 Yes. Public ownership of companies is a tricky process. However, we can assure you that Winnebago would never have survived as long as it did without going public.

It is going public that always inject huge sums of cash into a business.

Do the Shareholders Really Matter?

Obviously, shareholders are always going to matter when it comes to the running of a company. After all, the whole purpose of running a business is to make money for the people that have invested in it.

👉 However, Winnebago doesn’t really have any shareholders that are majorly active in the world of motorhomes. They are just investment funds and the like.

This means that the people that are running Winnebago tend to be left to their own devices. As long as they are making money for the shareholders, they can probably do whatever they want.

This is how Winnebago has managed to stay such a relevant brand in the world of motorhome manufacturing.

👉 Of course, it probably helps that nobody really has a controlling stake in the company. This means that there is not one shareholder in the business that is going to be able to make all the decisions on the way that the business is run.

👉 Remember, the more stake that a person or company has in a PLC, the more votes they get that can influence the decisions of that company.

So, BlackRock Fund Advisors with their 14% stake would have more of an impact on the running of the company than JP Morgan who only owns 4%.

Who is the CEO of Winnebago Industries?

The current CEO of Winnebago Industries is Michael Happe.

As near as we can tell, he does not have a major ownership stake in Winnebago Industries. However, it is likely that he does own some shares in the company as part of his financial compensation for running the business.

You should remember that when it comes to running a PLC company like Winnebago industries, the CEO is not an owner.

They are making decisions on behalf of the owners, and they are probably financially benefiting from these decisions in terms of financial incentives. However, they generally will not have a controlling stake in the business.

How much money does Winnebago Make a Year?

In 2014, the company made $945-million in sales. After taxes, expenses, etc. the company ended up making $45-million in profit.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that Winnebago will be making a loss or, at the very most, breaking even for a few years after 2020/2021.

After all, the pandemic meant that many people would be confined to their homes and, as a result, they wouldn’t really be looking into buying an RV or any of the accessories that you would normally need if you buy an RV.

Before this, however, the company was going through a sustained period of growth.

Subsidiaries of Winnebago

Winnebago Industries owns the Chris-Craft Corporation. This company is involved in the manufacturing of recreational motorboats, which fits perfectly into the Winnebago Industries business model.

Because Chris-Craft Corporation is a subsidiary of Winnebago, it is up to the management of Winnebago (who are influenced by their shareholders) to make decisions for this part of the business.

Can You Own a Stake in Winnebago Industries?

We really do not want this to turn into an article where we provide stock and shares advice. So, we are going to keep things brief.

👉 Yes. You can own shares in Winnebago Industries. You will need to do your own research into how you can purchase shares in a company.

However, generally speaking, you are going to be able to own your own stake in the business if you really wanted.

👉 If you owned a minor stake in Winnebago Industries, it probably wouldn’t offer that much benefit to you. You may get a small portion of their profits each year, but a single share would give you a few cents.

You may also have a vote as a shareholder, but a few votes are going to be nothing compared to the major owners in Winnebago Industries.

There is a Winnebago in Australia

We are going to wrap up by talking about something rather complicated.

If you head to Australia, there is a Winnebago operating there. It has done since the 1970s. The vehicles look like a Winnebago. They even have a logo that looks similar to the Winnebago. it isn’t.

For some obscure reason, Winnebago, knowingly, let a person produce vehicles using their name and designs in Australia. Because they knowingly allowed it, the courts decided that everything was completely legal.

Nowadays, the vehicles that are not actually produced by the American Winnebago are highlighted as such in the advertising materials, but sometimes it can be tricky to spot the difference between the ones being driven on the road.

Winnebago Industries now sell their own Winnebago models in Australia, which further complicates matters.

If you are in Australia, then you will probably want to pay attention to the exact model of the Winnebago that you are purchasing. Ownership here is going to be fairly murky.

Conclusion

As you can see, it is not truly known who owns Winnebago Industries. You know that it is a PLC company.

You know that you can own shares in it if you wanted. However, you will never get a full overview of who owns shares in the business.

It would be impossible, as these shares will trade hands multiple times per day. A proper list would be out of date within minutes.

References

https://money.cnn.com/