2009 was for Trigano a year of intense activity. The economic and financial crisis that violently hit Europe led to numerous difficulties for our industry, all the more than it was preceded for motor-caravans by an overproduction throughout Europe.
Trigano was thus confronted to a strong decrease in demand linked to the wait-and-see attitude of clients. Given the uncertain economic environment, and despite generally preserved financial capabilities, they decided to postpone their renewal purchases. This consumption crisis led to an increase in vehicle stocks both on the manufacturers’ and on the dealers’ side. Distributors, confronted moreover to a tightening of credit, were induced to reduce strongly their orders and to favour vehicles of second-hand and without trade-in. Lastly, distributors delayed or even cancelled many promotional operations that traditionally boosted trailer and garden equipment sales.

In this new environment, Trigano measured very soon the scale of difficulties and implemented a programme of actions in order to adapt its organisation to the new reality of the market. First, instead of transferring its stocks to distributors, Trigano privileged a policy of product sales through promotional operations targeted to consumers. Inventory reduction was accompanied by a structural and drastic decrease in industrial capacities of more than 20%. In parallel, strict financial discipline was maintained, all year long, which translated into a significant reduction of debt, into the restructuring of some business units and into the implementation of a large savings programme which measures will be amplified in 2009/2010. Coupled with the pursuit of product innovation, these measures are already bearing fruit; in addition to a reinforcement of Trigano’s financial structure, they should also allow for an improvement of results from the coming financial year.

In the 2009 economic environment, Trigano demonstrated the robustness of its model.

 

François FEUILLET

Chairman and CEO