Erwin Hymer Group (EHG) sold more vehicles and booked more revenue in its latest financial year. It also made less money doing it.
That is the headline once you strip the gloss off. EHG’s own press release from September 2025 called its figures “strong”.
A year on, the parent company’s filings tell a more useful story.
What happened
EHG does not publish full accounts. Its numbers sit inside THOR Industries’ European segment.
THOR reported its year to 31 July 2026 on 22 September.
European net sales rose 9.0% to $3.30bn. Unit shipments rose 2.7% to 45,623.
The order backlog climbed 8.4% to $1.65bn.
Those look like good numbers. Two details change the picture.
First, 5.9 points of that 9.0% growth came from the stronger euro. At constant currency, THOR chief executive Bob Martin put European growth at 3.1%.
Second, profit went the other way. Gross margin fell from 15.2% to 13.5%.
Income before tax dropped 28.9% to $72.2m, after $25.2m of restructuring costs.
That is 2.19 cents of pre-tax profit for every dollar of sales. The year before it was 3.36 cents, according to THOR’s earnings release.
What the numbers actually say
The 2025 release leaned hard on market share. EHG said its European share rose from 23.6% to 24.1% in the first half of 2025.
That figure broadly holds up. THOR’s own investor slides put EHG at 24.7% across all RV categories in the first half of 2026.
Motorhomes and campervans stood at 27.0%.
But the same slides rank EHG second, not first. And its caravan share slipped from 17.3% to 16.6%.
These shares also exclude the UK. Britain does not report registrations by manufacturer to the European Caravan Federation (ECF).
None of these percentages tell you how EHG is doing here.
Average revenue per unit tells the real story. It rose from $68,040 in FY2025 to $72,260 in FY2026, based on THOR’s reported sales and shipments.
EHG is selling fewer caravans and more motorhomes. That lifts the top line.
It does not, on this evidence, lift profit.
Last year, CEO Alexander Leopold pointed to “how robust our business model is”. I believe the margin data is the better test.
A business that needs $25.2m of restructuring to hold a 13.5% gross margin is being rebuilt.
The Trigano comparison
Trigano is the right yardstick. It is the other giant of European leisure vehicles, and it reported its year to 31 August on 23 September.
Group sales rose 3.8% to €3.80bn. Its motorhome and caravan division alone took €3.33bn.
Like-for-like growth was 3.1%. So the two groups grew at the same underlying pace.
The difference is what they kept.
Trigano posted a 9.0% recurring operating margin in its first half. It says the full-year figure is “progressing towards 10%”.
It holds around €500m of net cash. It returned €136m to shareholders: €60m in buybacks and €76m in dividends.
THOR’s slides put EHG’s European EBITDA at 6.2% of sales. These are different measures, but the gap is too wide to blame on accounting.
On share, Trigano edges EHG in motorhomes and campervans: 28.4% against 27.0% in THOR’s own first-half data.
Currency flatters EHG too. Its $3.30bn is less than Trigano’s €3.33bn at any exchange rate seen in recent years.
What does this say about Europe? Demand is flat, not falling.
Trigano counts 159,824 new motorhome registrations across its tracked markets in the year to August. A year earlier it was 159,781.
Growth now comes from taking share and controlling cost. Trigano is doing both.
EHG is doing the first and fixing the second.
What this means for UK dealers
The UK is where EHG’s restructuring bites hardest.
In March, Elddis said it would end production at Consett. Motorhomes move to EHG’s plant at Isny in Germany, campervans to Nowa Sól in Poland.
In June it confirmed caravans will also go to Isny from 2027, with Xplore and Buccaneer dropped. More than 200 jobs went.
That leaves Elddis caravans with no new production until next year. A public launch is planned for the NEC show in October 2027.
The UK market itself is soft. ECF data put UK registrations at just under 26,000 in 2025, down about 7%.
Motorhomes rose about 1.3% to around 16,700, so the fall came in caravans.
Trigano’s own figures put UK motorhomes at 16,438 for the year to August 2026, down 1.3%. Provisional figures for January to April 2026 show the UK down 5.5%.
Stock is less of a worry than a year ago. THOR’s slides show independent European dealer inventory of its products fell from 22,221 to 20,520 units in the year to 31 July.
Two years earlier it stood at 26,200.
For EHG dealers, I believe the practical steps are these:
- Plan caravan stock for a gap. If you sell Elddis caravans, assume thin supply until the 2027 relaunch. Talk to EHG UK now about allocation and run-out pricing on Buccaneer and Xplore.
- Lock down aftersales. Get written confirmation of parts, warranty and technical support routes from the new Consett Experience Centre.
- Expect tighter terms. A parent cutting costs and chasing margin is unlikely to be generous on dealer support. Budget for it.
- Watch Trigano. It plans to hold motorhome production stable in the first half and has cash for acquisitions. Its brands, including Adria, will push for UK floor space.
For suppliers, the message is simpler. EHG is moving production into fewer, larger plants.
Work tied to UK manufacturing is going. Volume will sit at Isny and Nowa Sól.
The wider trend
Europe’s leisure vehicle market has stopped shrinking but is not growing. The ECF counted over 215,000 registrations in 2025, down around 2.6%, according to the CIVD.
Caravans fell 11%. Motorhomes held.
Visitor numbers point the same way. Caravan Salon Düsseldorf drew 269,000 people in 2025, the figure EHG highlighted, and 259,000 this year.
The big groups are responding by building fewer models in fewer places. Elddis is the UK’s clearest example so far.
It is unlikely to be the last.
The next data point is Trigano’s full-year results on 24 November. If its margin lands near 10%, the gap with EHG becomes the story of 2027.
For UK dealers, the action is now. Review your EHG caravan exposure before the spring order window, and get 2027 supply commitments in writing.