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some hard times and tough decisions.“We had a lot of redundancy,”says Schutz,“a lot of duplication. You can say that the stones were exposedwhen the water went down.We called it ‘right-sizing.’We sized ourself to the business that was there and then,and as it came back,we put resources where necessary to growin the right places.” Another positive result was the necessarymoving of the company’smain refrigerationmanufactur- ing facility fromwhere it been for almost a century. “Our refrigerators were still beingmade inMotala, Sweden,the placewhere it started in 1922,”Schutz explains.“And during the Recession,it became very evident that therewasn’t enough volume left in the United States to be competitive byproducing something as far awayas Sweden.So,wemade a decision tomove a plant that was heavily invested in equipment and tooling fromMotala to Elkhart.By themiddle of 2009,the first refrigerators came off the line in Elkhart.” Schutzbelieves that the Elkhart location is one factor contributing to the company’s post-recession success.“Themanufacturers of the RVs,about 88 percent of them,arewithin 30miles of us,”he states. “Andmore than 70 percent of what we produce for the RV industry ismade here in the U.S.”This gives Dometic an edge in product distribution and on-time delivery,which helps separate the compa- ny from its competition.“In order to be successful, long-term,though,there has to be an assortment of things that tip the scale in your favor,”Schutzadvises. “And it’s not always price.We like to saywe’re com- THE DOMETIC CORPORATION petitive; we’re usually,slightlya littlemore,but we add the values of quality,dependability,on-time delivery,and a goodwarranty.” Another one of Dometic’s competitive edges is its ability to react to change as quicklyas possible in a business that movesmuch faster thanmany others.“If a dealer called up,for example,and said, ‘I’d like 30 units,but I want you tomove thewin- dowover four inches,’I can prettymuch tell you that most of theOEMs around here,by the next day,would be building thesewith thewindow moved over four inches,”Schutzexclaims.“So,we have to be quickand nimble,as well,because manyof our products are‘hard-tooled,’meaning it could take 16 or 18weeks if there is amajor change of a hard-tooled stove or refrigerator.On the other hand,in the areas that we canmake changes andwherewe have the ability,we try to