By Anne Cumming Rice

FORT LUPTON ? Harold Enander, founder of Vehicle Systems Inc., never dreamed his ideas for recreation-vehicle heating systems would fuel a multimillion-dollar company.
The company?s Aqua-Hot and Hydro-Hot products are sold to recreation vehicle manufacturers around the country and appear as standard equipment on several high-end RVs. In August the company plans to unveil a third system that will bring the same continuous hot-water benefits to lower-priced diesel coaches.
Vehicle Systems employs about 60 people at its 25,000-square-foot facility in rural Fort Lupton, where they design, manufacture, market, sell and service the heating systems for diesel-powered recreation vehicles.
Just over 20 years ago, in 1982, back problems and allergies forced Enander to leave the North Dakota ranching life. He found work in Colorado as a manufacturer?s rep for a German company marketing heaters for trucks and buses. While he was selling the heaters to the recreation-vehicle market as well as for use in commercial trucks and buses, the systems didn?t really meet the needs of RV customers.
By 1984, Enander, long an inventor who built a lot of his own ranch equipment, was tinkering with ideas for an RV heating system based on the German burner.
?It was difficult to install and control and do all the things the customers wanted,? he explained, ?so I basically put all the features into one package that would be easier to install and service, and would provide continuous hot water for showers and domestic use and zone-controlled temperatures in the coach.?
By 1989 Enander had patented his system and moved the company out of his house to its present location on 15 acres east of Fort Lupton.
There?s a strong niche market for Vehicle Systems products. Most RV owners want to have an unlimited supply of hot water, Enander explained. They also prefer the system?s use of diesel over propane fuel, a more volatile, dangerous fuel.
?We?re exclusively on diesel-powered coaches that already have a tank of diesel fuel,? he said. ?So our system burns the same fuel that powers the engine.?
Enander?s company, which got its start marketing to individuals doing bus conversions, has grown along with RV industry.
According to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, nearly one in 12 U.S. vehicle-owning households also owns recreation vehicles. The total number of RV owners in the U.S. grew by 38 percent between 1980 and 2001 to 7 million households.
The RVIA says demographic trends favor continued, substantial growth in the RV market. As baby boomers enter the prime RV-buying years, the number of households owning recreation vehicles is predicted to expand by 15 percent by the year 2010.
Vehicle Systems is positioned to exploit that potential. Its products are sold directly to original equipment manufacturers that include them as standard equipment on a growing number of motor coaches.
That represents the achievement of a company goal, said Joyce Harrington, sales and marketing assistant.
?When we got involved with the major manufacturers, that?s when our business really started booming and our name got out there,? she added.
As its reputation and relationships with RV manufacturers have grown, so has Vehicle Systems. Employee numbers have doubled over the past seven years, and Enander said that revenues grew by 28 percent during the 2004 fiscal year.
?I never even hoped to have a company of this size,? he said, looking back over Vehicle Systems? evolution. ?The Lord has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams.?
As a born-again Christian, Enander is committed to operating the company guided by Christian principles. That means, he said, creating a family-oriented, caring environment for employees and a company that backs its products with integrity for customers.
As Enander has moved from basement inventor to chief executive, he has sought the advice of experts in various aspects of business management. ?I?m just a simple rancher from North Dakota,? the CEO admits. ?When the company was growing and getting up over a million dollars in revenues, I really had very little knowledge of how to manage it. I have depended heavily on consultants and peers from other companies who were able to help me.?
For instance, when his company was experiencing growing pains in the form of employee conflicts, Enander brought in a clinical psychologist. ?It?s been a tremendous help in keeping the morale of the company quite high,? he said.
Enander also has made use of TEC, an international organization of CEOs that focuses on helping business leaders build their companies by putting them in touch with their peers and other business experts.
Consultant Mark Berkowitz of Empower Consulting has helped Vehicle Systems navigate some critical transitions as it has grown. Berkowitz has guided the company in developing a system to ensure that new employees fit the jobs they are hired to fill.
?To Hap?s credit he?s very invested in the company as a family environment,? Berkowitz said. ?He gives back to the company. He recognizes that people are his most valuable resource and he is willing to put resources into those people.?

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