Culture, acquisitions key to Lippert’s growth, longevity
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ELKHART, Ind. - Elkhart-based Lippert doesn’t make the boats, RVs, tents and more used by outdoor enthusiasts, but the public company makes parts and accessories that make those products better.
Awnings and screen rooms for RVs and campers. Shades and covers for boats. Hitches and electrical systems for trucks and trailers.
Many of those products go straight to manufacturers for use in assembly. But consumers can also buy Lippert products directly to repair, upgrade and decorate their existing RVs, campers, boats and more.
The company—whose corporate name is LCI Industries and trades as LCII—is led by Jason Lippert, whose grandfather co-founded the company in 1956 as B&L Industries to make roofing for manufactured homes. LCI went public in 1985, and Jason Lippert became the company’s third-generation leader in 2003.
Since then, the company has been growing in part through acquisitions—it’s done 70 since he became CEO.
Today, Lippert has 140 factories around the world and about 14,000 team members worldwide. Jason Lippert has focused on overhauling the company’s culture with an emphasis on personal and leadership development.
IBJ talked with Lippert about the challenges and opportunities facing the company.
How do you describe what Lippert does?
It’s evolved obviously, but today, we just say we’re a global manufacturer of engineered products for various industries. Those industries are RV, the marine industry—and we’re aftermarket for both of those businesses.
We do transportation vehicles. So for just about every school bus out there, we do their windows. … We do a lot of windows for buses and do almost all the windows for shuttle buses. And then we have a housing business where we do a lot of residential type products, and then a European business where we primarily serve the RV, marine and train industries there.
You never hear us say: Hey, we’re a leisure products company. We do so much more than that. So we say we’re an engineered product solutions company for all these different industries.
We do glass processing. We do steel fabrication, welding and painting. We do aluminum fabrication.
How do you approach acquisitions?
So typically we try to stay in six legs of the business: RV, marine, aftermarket, transportation, housing and Europe. We like to buy smaller businesses that have the ability to scale versus going in and buying this big behemoth that we might not be able to do a ton with because they’re already big and doing well.
And the competitive landscape is of the utmost importance to me. I do not want to get in and spend a lot of resources fighting against somebody that’s really, really good. I’d rather go into a market that’s underappreciated and customer service is poor and the competitive landscape is relatively weak—and then it’s got to fit into one of those disciplines in one of those markets.
You have several dozen plants in Indiana. What is it like to do business here versus other states or countries?
Indiana is a great place to do business. It’s very business friendly; it’s very manufacturing friendly. The last four governors we’ve had in here have been really pro-business. We’re in a lot of states where it’s not pro-business and [that’s where] we’re trying to exit and shrink, which shrinks the jobs, it shrinks the footprint print in those states. I think that kind of policy is bad for the people in those states.
But Indiana, Indiana has been pro business. And the other factor is the RV business and the marine business continue to really grow here. And I would throw the bus business in there, too. I mean, 80% to 90% of all the shuttle buses built in the country are built right here in Elkhart, Indiana.
How was Lippert affected by the pandemic?
We had this big bubble and explosion during the pandemic. We could not build product fast enough. We could not get parts built fast enough to keep up with demand.
Typically … we see slow and steady growth over the years and slow and steady declines. But this grew fast, and it was over a 2-1/2-year period. It forced us to add a lot of facilities, find and train a lot of people. We made some acquisitions during that time, but things started to dip in late ’22, so we had to make some adjustments. We were proud to say we didn’t have any layoffs. We just kind of let attrition take its course, and we weren’t able to to offer five-day work weeks for everybody. But we’ve since adjusted our footprint.
There are always peaks and valleys. We’re coming out of a valley and to our next peak, and we’re excited about the next four or five years of growth that’s likely to happen.
I think the one thing about the pandemic was it introduced a whole bunch of people to the outdoors. And once you get introduced to the outdoors, you’re typically going to continue to do things here. … I think a lot of people realize the affordability of it during that time. You can get into an RV for $20,000 or $25,000 and finance it and take five or six trips a year if you want. And it’s a lot cheaper than the hotels and the airfare and eating out every night that you’d have if do a traditional vacation.
Many companies are struggling to find workers. How is the labor market for Lippert?
The labor market right now is tight. Since the pandemic, there are all sorts of remote work options for people, and you’ve got all these different opportunities that people have today that they didn’t have five years ago. But we’re in manufacturing, and remote work isn’t a real opportunity. So we’re left looking for people that really want to come find a great place to work and use their hands or participate in the manufacturing workforce some way, shape or form.
But I think our job is probably easier than most because we have focused on culture and leadership development here, and we have very, very low turnover. So we don’t need a ton of people as much as our peers do.
And when we need people, we’ve got a line at the door because people have heard through word of mouth or they’ve heard through friends or family that this is a really good place to work. We treat people well. We live with integrity and through our core values, and we do what we say we’re going to do.
And if people don’t live to the core values here, they get respectfully exited from the company. In a lot of companies that doesn’t happen, and people live in a frustrated state the whole time.
Some companies put values on the wall and don’t follow them. … We used to be in this spot a long time ago where you’ve got a bad reputation. But now, we have people saying positive things, and really, it’s a true testament to our culture. … We tend to get a lot of referrals and a line at the door of people waiting to get in.
What have you done to build that kind of culture?
The hard part is really to execute. It starts with a core values journey, and you can’t put values on the wall unless you live up to them every single day—and you cannot really waver. Team members are looking to see how consistent you’re going to be in that journey.
I always ask companies when [we’re discussing culture]: What kind of resources do you put behind culture? I’ve got 29 people today in culture and leadership development, and most companies have zero. Most companies leave it to HR, and I think it’s laughable because HR has a full plate.
We’ve got 29 people, and that includes leadership coaches, it includes personal development coaches, it includes community impact teams that handle our philanthropic outreach to our communities where we set up serving events for our team members. It includes two chaplains right now. It includes the leadership academy.
If we’re going to make culture better, we have to be able to train people on what that means. … Many manufacturing companies allow people on the front lines to yell and scream at people and do all sorts of terrible things and act and behave badly. And [workers are] not used to a company that actually says: Here’s how culture works, and by the way, we’ve got a whole team of people to help support that.
You talked about people who love the outdoors. What do you do outdoors? What are your favorite outdoor products?
I love our RV trips that we do with our family. My boys and I love the RV because it’s all about just getting out there—and maybe you know where you’re going and where you’re going to stop. And sometimes you don’t. The element of adventure when it comes to RVing is really special.
How old are your boys?
I’ve got twin, 12-year-old boys and a 16-year-old boy. And then my daughter’s 21, and she’s in college. When she’s around, she likes the same kind of thing.
But it’s lakes. It’s playing sports out in the yard. Whatever game we decide to play, whether it’s basketball or baseball or throwing the football around, we just like to be outside.
What kind of RV do you own?
I just sold it and am getting another one. It was a Class C one, with a slide out 25 feet, and I’m going to get something that’s very comparable, just a newer version, new product.
Over the years I’ve tried to spread the love around with my friends that are building all these things and try different products.
How many different RVs have you owned over the years?
Three.
And do you have any boats?
Bennington’s right down the street, and they’re the largest boat builders. So I bought a boat from them in 2016. I bought another one here this year. So we boat a lot, and we stick with the pontoons. You can pull skiers and then you can putz around the lake on a wine cruise. So it’s a really versatile watercraft.