Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth June Dunivan, owner and founder of Longview RV Center, is closing her business after 30 years because fewer people are buying recreational vehicles. |
Talking Business: Longview RV Center will close up shop sometimes this summer
Monday, June 18, 2007 6:53 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell, columnist
Printable version
E-mail this articleJune Dunivan says she'll shed some tears this summer.
Dunivan, a founder of Longview RV Center, is closing the business after 30 years of selling and servicing recreational vehicles.
"It's just something you don't think will happen," she said. "They've been 30 good years, tough years, but we've survived."
Dunivan built the company into a multimillion-dollar business with 19 employees by 1997, but now there is only a handful of RVs and four employees left. The business will close when the inventory is sold off.
Dunivan credits her customer-centered approach for keeping business steady throughout most of the years. "We've taken care of them and they come back," she said. "We treat them like family."
But the RV industry shifted gears during the past few years. Gas prices doubled in seven years, and the recent spike was the final straw, Dunivan said. Nationally, RV shipments were down by double digits this spring, according to the RV Industry Association.
At Longview RV, sales dropped by about 50 percent in 2006 from 2005. "We used to sell 25 to 30 units a month during the summer time," she said.
Last August, Dunivan cut the sales part of her business and focused on servicing existing RVs.
"We had been seeing a decline for the past three years as the gas prices went up," she said. "And it kept getting worse. Also, we weren't seeing the baby boomers (buying RVs), which experts were calling for."
Snowbirds also were giving up using RVs for buying small homes, Dunivan said.
She said she plans to lease her high-traffic location at 915 Tennant Way to one or more businesses, but "if the right offer comes along, I might think about selling."
"It's been my baby from the beginning, it's been fun," Dunivan said with tears in her eyes. "I guess it's just time to call it quits and move on."
Mint Farm wins excellence award
Longview's Mint Farm Industrial Park received a Municipal Excellence Award from the Association of Washington Cities Wednesday.
The Mint Farm was one of seven projects out of 67 entries selected to receive the award. It won in the economic development category.
"The park provides meaningful, family-wage jobs for a willing, skilled work force to the Longview community," Longview Mayor Dennis Weber said in a news release. "An added bonus is the modern, high-tech, environmentally-friendly ethic that the new businesses are bringing to our region."
Longview and Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Co. have been developing the park since the 1990s.
NORPAC earns safety award
The North Pacific Paper Company, or NORPAC, earned its parent company's most prestigious safety honor, the Weyerhaeuser Senior Management Team Bronze Safety Award.
Longview's NORPAC mill has operated 1 million work hours without a lost-time accident, which is when a at-work injury result in missed work, according to a Weyerhaeuser press release. The Longview mill employs 450 people.
The award is "a credit to the hands-on involvement from every NORPAC employee" said Craig Anneberg, NORPAC vice president and mill manager.
The local mill makes newsprint for newspaper and magazine publishers in the Western United States and Japan. NORPAC is a joint venture between Weyerhaeuser Co. and Nippon Paper Industries of Japan.
If you know about a business opening, closing or going through major changes, contact reporter Evan Caldwell . He can be reached at evan.caldwell@tdn.com. or Talking Business, The Daily News, P.O. Box 189, Longview, WA 98632.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories