Good morning, and welcome to the THOR Industries Inc. 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andrew Graves, Chairman of the Board of THOR Industries. Please go ahead.
Thank you. It's my pleasure, on behalf of the Board of Directors and Officers of THOR Industries, to welcome you here today for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We're excited to be hosting our meeting virtually this year and want to express our appreciation to you for attending. I will preside as Chairman of the meeting, and Todd Woelfer, General Counsel and Secretary of THOR, will serve as Secretary of the meeting. Copies of our proxy statement and annual report are available on the virtual meeting website, as is the agenda for this meeting. It's now shortly after 8:00 A.M. Central Standard Time on December 18th, and this meeting is officially called to order. Before we move on to official business, I would like to introduce our Board of Directors. Peter Orthwein, Chairman Emeritus of the Board. Amelia Huntington, Member of our Audit and Compensation and Development Committees.
Wilson Jones, Chairman of our Compensation and Development Committee and Member of our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. William Kelley, our newest Board Member and Member of our Audit and Compensation and Development Committees. Christopher Klein, Member of our Audit and Compensation and Development Committees. J. Allen Kosowsky, Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and Member of the Audit Committee. Bob Martin, THOR's Chief Executive Officer and President. Jan Suwinski, Member of our Compensation and Development and Audit Committees. James Ziemer, Chair of the Audit Committee and Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. All 10 of our Directors are standing for election today at this meeting. I would also like to welcome the other members of our Management Team who are with us today.
Our Executive Management team, including Colleen Zuhl, Todd Woelfer, Ken Julian, Josef Hjelmaker, as well as our Director of Internal Audit, Laura Perkins, our two Group RV Managers, Matt Zimmerman and Chris Hermon, and our Director of Investor Relations, Mark Trinske. Also with us today is Charles Zaid of Broadridge. The Board of Directors has appointed Charles Zaid to act as our Inspector of Election. Charles has taken the oath of office as Inspector of Election as required by Delaware corporate law. The oath of office will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I understand that the majority of shareholders have submitted their proxies. The holders of any undelivered proxies may vote at this time via the web portal. If you have voted by proxy, you do not need to take any further action.
I would now like to introduce you to our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Todd Woelfer. Mr. Woelfer, has the notice of this meeting been sent to all shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting?
Yes. I have the sworn affidavit from Broadridge stating that the notice of internet availability of the notice of the meeting and accompanying proxy materials were mailed to shareholders of record on or about November 5, 2020 to all of our shareholders as of our record date, October 19, 2020. A copy of the notice, together with the affidavit, will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. In addition, the list of shareholders of record who are entitled to vote is present and available for inspection by any shareholder. Mr. Chairman, I have been advised by the inspector of election that there are over 49 million shares and more than 89% of THOR's issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote represented in person or by proxy at today's meeting.
Since we have a majority of THOR shares represented here today, a quorum is present, the meeting is duly constituted and organized, and the business of the meeting may proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Woelfer. The principal business of this meeting is to, first, elect 10 directors for terms of one year each. Second, ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as THOR's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending July 31st, 2021. Third, to hold an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. Fourth, to transact any other business as may properly come before this meeting. The polls are hereby open for voting at this time. Any shareholder who hasn't yet or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action.
Mr. Woelfer, were there any shareholder nominations or proposals for business for this meeting kindly filed with the secretary?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Therefore, I declare the nominations closed and the official business of this meeting will be limited to the three proposals set forth in the proxy statement. The first proposal we will consider is the election of 10 directors. The board has nominated Andrew Graves, Amelia Huntington, Wilson Jones, William Kelley, Christopher Klein, Allen Kosowsky, Robert Martin, Peter Orthwein, Jan Suwinski, and James Ziemer to serve a one-year term as directors, which terms will expire at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Additional information concerning their background and recent experience is set forth in the proxy statement. Is there any discussion with respect to the nominations for director? The second item of business we will consider is the ratification of the appointment by THOR Industries Audit Committee of Deloitte & Touche as independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending July 31st, 2021.
Representatives of Deloitte & Touche, including the lead engagement partner, Rich Caffarelli and Matt Bahr, are present and available to answer appropriate questions. Is there any discussion with respect to ratification of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent auditor? We will move to the third proposal. The third item of business we will consider is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. This vote is an advisory vote and is not binding on the company or the board of directors. Information concerning the background of this advisory vote is contained in the proxy statement. Is there any discussion with respect to the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers? I believe that concludes consideration of these matters.
I now call for a vote on the election of 10 directors, the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as THOR Industries' independent registered accounting firm, and the non-binding resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers. If you've already voted, there is no need for you to recast your vote. If you have not yet voted, please do so now on the web portal. While you are voting, Bob Martin will provide an overview of the past year. Bob?
Thank you, Andy. I'll start at a very high level and start at the beginning of the year. We had a year that last year we worked through dealer inventories. We started the year at a very good place with dealer inventories in line, no aged inventory, and very much set up for a solid year of growth. Going into January and February shows, record attendance, record sales by most of our dealers. January and February were looking very good for the RV industry and for THOR Industries. As we all know, at the end of February and early March, we learned of the coronavirus and COVID-19. As it escalated on March 24th, the state of Indiana and most of our other states that we build products in, shut down manufacturing and put everything on a stay order.
Our operations ceased for six to eight weeks, depending on which operation, and depending on the state and the company. The same thing happened in Europe as well. Through that time, we really created a playbook for coming back to work. Not sure when that was going to be, but we prepped our facilities, our staff members, and we were ready to come back to work on May 4th. In that meantime, we did take drastic measures and furloughed the vast majority of many of our employees. Management took very large pay cuts because we simply didn't know how long this was going to last. Fortunately for the RV industry, on May 4th when we opened up, our employees came back to work.
They were eager to come back to work with new safety protocols, masking, hand sanitizer, fogging of plants, social distancing, and all of our facilities have successfully been able to get back to full production. As the RV industry opened up, as campgrounds opened up, and dealers were able to open up, we saw this quick build and demand from retail customers looking for a way to still travel throughout a global pandemic. The trends from Europe are very similar to the trends from the U.S., where people found traveling in a recreational vehicle of all forms, from the entry-level small units to the very large diesel motor homes. Our dealers' inventories were virtually depleted over the summer months. Since then, we've simply been trying to catch up with production and keep our customers in supply with stock on their lots.
Right now, many have very low inventory, zero used units. We've seen an uptick in sales, and it's a good portion from coronavirus, but it's not just that. It's our standard customers have come back this year, and I think people that owned an RV were very happy that they already had one because they had a way to travel. We do see many of these new customers in the U.S. and in Europe. As you can see from backlogs, our backlogs are very high in the U.S. and in Europe. These are customers that are trading in, these are new customers coming to the business, and it gives us great confidence that we've really kind of gone into the next level, down into the millennial buyer, which the millennial group is actually larger than the baby boomers.
As we look at the future of the industry, we have great confidence that THOR will come back even stronger, which as we've done in every difficult situation of a recession, 9/11, wars. THOR always comes back a little bit larger and stronger. We're seeing that trend now through retail customers coming in every day. Still, even in these winter months, retail sales continue to be robust in the U.S. and in Europe. For us looking in the next year, we're simply seeing many positives, many trends of the younger buyers buying small units. Our new Class B vans have been received unbelievably well on the Mercedes-Benz and the Fiat chassis, and that's a new operation that we opened up this year. We're looking forward to inviting these buyers into our fold as customers.
Typically, many of our customers, when they come in, they trade up every three to five years. We simply feel that this can be more of a secular influence for the company and for the industry for many years to come. It's been definitely the most challenging year for our staff, for all of our employees, working in a COVID-19 environment. Our team has done an incredible job at adapting and learning to do that and really learning to flourish. Overall, it's been a challenging year, but a very good year and one that I know the variable business model showed to be true. That even in one of the toughest quarters ever, we still remain profitable and definitely profitable for the year, where many companies just aren't able to say that.
As we look to the future, we feel that it's just bigger and better things to come. For me, that's my high-level overview. I would just like to open it up for Q&A if anybody has any questions.
Thank you, Bob. The polls for voting on the matters before this meeting are hereby closed. While the votes are being tabulated and the Inspector of Election provides us preliminary voting results, we'll take questions from shareholders, as Bob said. Please feel free to submit your question in writing through the portal.
Mr. Chairman, I want to acknowledge shareholder Sam Carswell at this time. Sam is a valued shareholder who submitted a video which has been shared with the Board of Directors at Sam's request, and I wanted to acknowledge that for the meeting record.
Mr. Woelfer, thank you for that. Any other questions that have been submitted through the portal?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Okay. Thank you. That concludes the question and answer portion of the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, the Inspector of Election reports that the preliminary voting results indicate that Mr. Graves, Ms. Huntington, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Klein, Mr. Kosowsky, Mr. Martin, Mr. Orthwein, Mr. Suwinski, and Mr. Ziemer have each received a majority of votes for election as directors.
I declare that Mr. Graves, Ms. Huntington, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Klein, Mr. Kosowsky, Mr. Martin, Mr. Orthwein, Mr. Suwinski, and Mr. Ziemer to be duly elected Directors of THOR Industries to serve for the term expiring on the date of THOR Industries' 2021 Annual Meeting and until their respective successors have been elected and qualified.
Mr. Chairman, the Inspector of Election further reports that the preliminary vote totals reveal that a majority of the shares present at the meeting in person or by proxy voted in favor of the ratification of the Audit Committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche to act as THOR Industries' independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2021.
Accordingly, I declare the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as THOR Industries' independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending July 31st, 2021, has been approved by the shareholders.
Mr. Chairman, the Inspector of Election further reports that the preliminary vote totals indicate that a majority of the shares present at the meeting voted in favor of the non-binding resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers.
Accordingly, I declare that the non-binding resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers has been approved by the shareholders. Upon conclusion of the final tabulation over the next couple of days, the Inspector of Election will furnish the Secretary a written report of the final vote count with respect to the matters voted on today, which shall be included in the minutes of this meeting and reported in a Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since there is nothing further to come before this annual meeting, I will entertain a shareholder motion for adjournment.
I motion to adjourn.
Is there a second for that motion?
I second the motion.
You have heard the motion to adjourn the meeting. All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye. All those opposed, no. The motion is carried and the meeting is adjourned. I want to thank all of you for attending today's annual meeting virtually and for the interest you have shown in the affairs of your company. Have a great day.
Thank you.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.