In a Des Moines country club, Mary Gottschalk clicked her slideshow to show three recreational vehicles to a crowd of Rotarians breakfasting on scrambled eggs and oatmeal.

On the screen appeared an antique, stainless steel teardrop trailer, a hulking, turquoise motorhome and a red camper van topped with a matching kayak.

"Which of these are Winnebagos?" she asked her audience, before indicating the correct choice — the sleek, ruby-red van with a sporty bicycle hanging off the back door.

"I was surprised, too," she said before introducing Winnebago Industries CEO Michael Happe to the podium.

Iowa-born Winnebago, famous for its big, boxy motorhomes, is in the midst of a major makeover designed to appeal to a wider base of buyers — and Happe is the man leading the transformation.

The company has rolled out a line of all-electric vehicles and ponied up half a billion dollars to acquire a wunderkind towable business.

Perhaps most notably, Winnebago purchased luxury boat-maker Chris-Craft, signaling its interest in expanding its empire beyond traditional recreational vehicles.

Winnebago has seen its fortunes rise during that time, aided by one of the U.S. economy's longest expansions ever. Winnebago earned more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2018 — nearly 10 times larger than 2009's earnings of about $211 million.

Its stock price is hovering around $21.50 a share after peaking at $56 a share in December 2017.

Of Winnebago's 4,600 employees, about 2,270 work in Iowa at facilities in Forest City, Charles City, Lake Mills and Waverly.

Analysts are enthused by the company's performance, even amid concern that Winnebago's motorized segment hasn't seen the same growth as other parts of the company's expanded product mix. And the wider RV segment remains vulnerable to a potential economic downturn.

Happe said that Winnebago, which long has enjoyed strong brand awareness with consumers, is beginning to realize its full potential since he arrived in January 2016.

"I am not a turnaround artist," Happe said in an interview. "I think this is more of a good-to-great journey than it is a turnaround."

More:Iowa's iconic Winnebago retools to attract younger buyers

Winnebago's new models jumpstart revival

Case in point: Winnebago's new 19½-foot Revel motorhome represents a huge departure for a brand that has long specialized in serving silver-haired retirees.

The sporty, Iowa-built coach was designed to attract younger buyers who want to explore off the grid but may have never considered an RV.

Since the Revel hit the market in September 2017, dealerships across the country have struggled to maintain their inventory.

"This is the very first month in 13 months that we’ve ever had inventory," said Ron Lichtsinn, owner of Lichtsinn RV in Forest City. "And some of these people that originally ordered just took delivery in the last three months.

And most buyers are nontraditional.

"They’re absolutely new entrants to a motorized camping lifestyle," Lichtsinn said. "They probably have never stepped foot in a campground and probably never will."

More:Winnebago's newest models are not your grandparents' motorhomes

The success of the Revel reflects Happe's efforts to appeal to a broader base of customers — part of his marching orders from the board of directors that hired him as Winnebago's first outside CEO in decades.

The board's ambitious mandate was straightforward:

Restore the brand's leadership in the motorhome sector.

Make the company relevant in towable recreational vehicles.

Drive profitable diversification.

Board members left the particulars to Happe.

While Winnebago has made big moves in the camping and marine sectors, Happe started with a more philosophical change: establishing a new corporate vision that set a common set of goals for employees.

"In essence, we didn't have a North Star," he told the crowd of Rotarians. "We did not know where we were going in three, five, 10 years."

Within his first six months, Happe's team created a new path for Winnebago that no longer defined the company as an RV manufacturer, but cast a wider vision as a leader in "outdoor lifestyle solutions."

"It was giving our team permission to think bigger," he said.

Acquisitions target wider market beyond motorhomes

That broader vision has brought greater risk.

For more than five decades, Winnebago never added debt to its balance sheets. But those days are over.

As of Aug. 25, 2018, the company had outstanding debt of $291.4 million, which has helped fuel acquisitions.

The company in 2016 spent $500 million to purchase Grand Design, a fast-growing builder of towable RVs. And in June 2018, Winnebago purchased luxury boat-maker Chris-Craft for an undisclosed sum.

The first acquisition helped balance the company's portfolio: In 2015, 93 percent of Winnebago's revenues came from motorhome sales and only 5 percent from the more lucrative towable area. In fiscal year 2018, the company brought in 56 percent of its revenue from towables.

Ashis Bhattacharya, the company's vice president for strategic planning and development, oversees acquisitions as well as the company's emerging all-electric vehicle line. He said Winnebago will continue to look at more acquisitions.

"We're willing to place aggressive bets," he said at a September mergers and acquisitions conference in Des Moines.

Bhattacharya said Winnebago is eyeing industries adjacent to RV manufacturing and the wider outdoor market — such as boating, fishing, hunting and cycling.

"We definitely want to understand the outdoor lifestyle better," he said in an interview, "and see how can we be a more valued part of that lifestyle."

Winnebago struggles to grow its core product

When Happe was hired in 2016, he moved most executive offices to the Twin Cities, rather than staying at the company's traditional headquarters in Forest City, Iowa.

Since he's taken over, Wall Street has noticed a cultural change at the company, said David Whiston, an auto analyst at Morningstar Research services who covers the RV maker.

"In one word, it's more corporate than it used to be, which is good and bad, I guess," he said. "I think you’ve got a much more savvy, aggressive management team in place now."

But the company has struggled to find significant momentum with its motorized business: In Winnebago's fiscal year 2018, revenues for towable RVs spiked 64.4 percent to $1.13 billion.

The motorized division saw growth of only 0.9 percent as it realized $860.7 million in annual sales.

"The profitability of motorhomes still seems to be struggling," Whiston said. "So I guess I want to see more of an impact before I get excited about the new products."

Yet, motorhomes continue to highlight one of the company's core strengths: its enduring image.

"It’s like, 'Google this,' or 'get me a Coke,'" Whiston said. "When you think motorhome, even people outside the industry think Winnebago."

Still, the company remains relatively small. It's miles behind market leaders Thor Industries and Forest River (Thor's 2018 sales were more than quadruple those for Winnebago.)

Seth Woolf, a research analyst at Northcoast Research, said Winnebago has made great strides over the last three years.

"But there's still room to go," he said.

Moreover, the overall market has softened, and many investors believe the economy is losing steam — which makes it tough for any stock in the space, he said.

"They’ve been outperforming significantly. Does that continue?" Woolf said. "Is this a speed bump we’ve been hitting, or is this a turn in the cycle?"

Evolving away from 'the Winnebago you know and love'

The appeal of Winnebago's name remains a powerful asset, company leaders say.

This is the story Bhattacharya tells to convey the bond consumers have with the RV maker:

While paying the bill for a recent meal, Bhattacharya's waitress noticed his Winnebago corporate credit card. She dropped everything to tell him about her time as a child camping in a Winnebago, fighting over bunk space and roasting marshmallows for s'mores with her cousins.

These sorts of interactions have taught Bhattacharya that this company does much more than assemble vehicles.

"What we actually do is we enable some of the most extraordinary adventures that people have in their lives," he said at the September conference in Des Moines. "And I think that's important to keep in mind because that emotional connection with the brand is something that's truly extraordinary and unique."

Winnebago will jealously protect its relationship with customers. But he said the company is evolving in a way that "might not be consistent with the Winnebago you know and love."

"This is a company that is an aggressive, growing company," he said. "It's on the move."