Skyline Champion’s Dick Grymonprez to Retire this Summer

Dick Grymonprez

Skyline Champion is a recognizable name when it comes to park model RVs for many park owners and, in turn, its longtime director of park model sales, Dick Grymonprez, is also a very recognizable name.

As someone who pops up regularly at trade events and consumer shows across the country, Grymonprez has not only helped Skyline Champion continue to grow its park model segment, he has also helped the park model RV (PMRV) industry as a whole by being willing to advocate for PMRVs at the local, state and national levels.

But after decades of working in the industry, Grymonprez has decided it is time to retire so that he can focus more on family, golf and pickleball. He plans to pass the reigns later this summer.

Grymonprez told Woodall’s Campground Magazine (WCM) – a sister publication of RVBusiness – that he got his start on the manufactured home side in 1981 with Redman Homes based out of Topeka, Ind. The company is now part of the Skyline Champion Corporation.

“That’s where Redman used to send all the new sales reps for training, and they asked me where I wanted to go if a sales job opened up somewhere,” he noted. “I told them Texas, Arizona or Florida. I grew up in Michigan and Redman didn’t have a plant in Michigan, so I figured if I had to move somewhere, I might as well move where it’s warm. That turned out to be a really good decision.”

After Grymonprez started in Texas, he received a sales manager job in Chandler, Ariz., and started building PMRVs for a few years just to keep the plant busy. After a move back to Texas and a couple of plant closures, an opportunity arose with a couple of friends to purchase Athens from Champion. Both Athens and Champion would eventually also become part of the Skyline Champion Corporation.

“We took the leap and due to a two-year non-compete clause, we decided to build park model RVs since we couldn’t do anything on the manufactured home side,” Grymonprez explained.

That led to Grymonprez taking a larger role in the industry by becoming a board member for several associations, including a stint as president of the Arizona Manufactured Housing Association.

“I have always been involved with associations and have tried to work with the whole industry,” he told WCM.

He was even involved in getting the PMRV industry to join forces with the RV Industry Association (RVIA), which it officially became part of in about 2011. Grymonprez served a total of 10 years on the RVIA board as a park model industry representative before ending his service at the end of 2022.

“The one thing I appreciate about the park model RV business is that the park model RV manufacturers all get along and work together,” he explained. “When we made the decision to join RVIA we saw how having deep coffers helps in a lot of situations.

Dick Grymonprez

“A few years ago the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was trying to say that park model RV manufacturers were advertising and selling the units as housing and that people were enclosing porches and making them over 399 square feet,” Grymonprez added. “They wanted to take porches away from us and RVIA stepped up and got its lawyers involved. They were able to take care of that situation for us. I’m not so sure we could have won a fight like that without RVIA support. I think it was the best decision we ever made. We never wanted to fall into the HUD trap. A lot of our factories build HUD as well as park models, and we wanted to be separate. We wanted to be RVs and there’s no better way to be an RV than to join the RVIA and be part of the association where they say we are building RVs. I think it just makes our case stronger.”

Grymonprez said that while some companies may not have seen a lot of changes over the last several years because they sell to dealers, Skyline Champion has continued to innovate and grow due to its relationships with park owners and developers.

“Not just the individual owners, but also companies like Sun Communities and Equity Lifestyle, which are putting in resorts across the country with 50, 60 and even hundreds of park models,” he noted. “We have multiple plants and are built for high volumes of orders, so we are able to supply these park models quickly.

“That’s how I think the park model business has been growing the last few years and I think the dealer business is always going to be good too,” Grymonprez added. “There’s always going to be individuals that want to buy park models. In some states, you can put them on private property. In some states obviously, you’ve got to put them in campgrounds or RV resorts, and they can’t go on personal property. That business is always going to be there and it’s always going to be good business, but I think the big growth is in the campgrounds and the resorts.”

He told WCM that right now the park model RV industry is firing on all cylinders and that while there are bumps in the road, he feels the demand is going to stay strong for years to come.

“Obviously, higher interest rates don’t help us. I think a lot of people that buy park models are buying them for a second home or vacation home and generally the interest rate may not be that important, but yet it is important for some,” Grymonprez said. “I think that’s a challenge. I think prices on park models have doubled since COVID and sometimes it’s crazy to think that we used to sell park models all day long for $20,000 to $30,000 and now they’re $70,000 to $90,000, and in some cases over $100,000. It’s mind-boggling to me.

“The funny thing is, it hasn’t slowed sales,” he added. “I think somebody that’s looking for a second home or a vacation home, or a resort looking to put in rental units, the higher price is not phasing them a bit. I think it’s something that concerns me because there is a point where you can get too expensive.”

The industry is also still fighting off the perception that park models serve as housing to some degree and the tiny house movement hasn’t helped things.

“If you think about it, a person’s going to live wherever they want to live. The RV business doesn’t want to admit this, but there are people that live in RVs year-round, full-time,” Grymonprez said. “There are people that live in park models year-round. Obviously, there are people that might live in a tent year-round. People are going to live in what they want to live in.

“All we can do is educate people that we are building an RV. It’s not a home. That’s where we have trouble with tiny homes,” he added. “They advertise as alternate living and minimal living and that sort of thing. But you go on Skyline Champion’s website and we don’t talk about it being a home. We talk about park models as vacation homes or a getaway or cottage or cabin. We do not promote our industry as a home. We do it as an RV. But if somebody wants to live full-time in an RV, it’s hard to stop that.”

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/skyline-champions-dick-grymonprez-to-retire-this-summer/