Winnebago Industries Inc. appointed Huw Bower as president, Winnebago Outdoors. Bower will report to President and CEO, Michael Happe and based in the company’s Eden Prairie, MN office.
Bower’s primary responsibilities will include all revenue streams associated with the flagship brand, Winnebago, namely Winnebago-branded recreational and specialty vehicles. The company will also look to strategically expand the presence of the Winnebago brand in other outdoor lifestyle spaces.
Bower joins Winnebago Industries after more than 15 years in brand leadership and executive roles at Brunswick Corporation. Most recently as president, Boat Group reporting to the CEO of Brunswick, Bower was responsible for its portfolio of boat brands.
Happe commented, “We are extremely excited to have a high-quality leader such as Huw join our executive leadership team. Not only will he add further strength to our motivated management team, his passion for leading premium, but differentiated brands will also enable Huw to build on the momentum of our flagship brand and advance our leadership position in the outdoor lifestyle industry. His broad experience across the durable goods value chain, combining both operations and product development capabilities with a focus on the consumer, will be immediately accretive.”
In addition, it was announced that Brian Hazelton will assume an expanded role within the Winnebago-brand structure. Hazelton will be promoted to senior vice president, Winnebago-brand RVs (both motorhomes and towables), reporting to Huw Bower. He will be responsible for all customer-facing areas of the full-line of Winnebago RV business including product management, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer service. As a result of these changes, the current leader of the Winnebago-brand towables business, Scott Degnan, will be leaving the organization.
Happe continued, “Brian’s work over the past four years restructuring the Winnebago-brand motorhome business, and building credibility with our important external stakeholders, make him the ideal candidate to drive one full-line business forward in the future. The leadership strengths of Bower and Hazelton are complementary, and their partnership will significantly benefit our business and our customers. We are very appreciative of the work Scott Degnan has done professionally with Winnebago Industries through the years and wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”
The moves announced by Winnebago Industries do not have any impact on the leadership or operating structure of the company’s Grand Design, Newmar and Chris-Craft brands. Winnebago Industries will be releasing its Fiscal Year 2020 year-end and fourth-quarter results later in October.
Photo courtesy Winnebago
