Camping World Holdings, Inc. has launched a new, industry-first dealership format that is dedicated exclusively to the RV industry’s best-known brands. Under this format, select individual dealerships will be dedicated exclusively to selling, servicing and showcasing that brand’s products.
The Jayco Morgan Hill facility in California marks the first wave of the rollout. This format is designed to both complement and operate in parallel with the existing traditional Camping World branded footprint. The company intends to open, acquire, or convert manufacturer exclusive locations across its network.
“We believe our growth can be accelerated by acquiring or opening dealerships that will ultimately be focused exclusively on the leading RV brands in America,” said Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis.
Matt Wagner, COO of Camping World, added, “We believe this strategy widens the acquisition funnel to include dealers with a smaller real estate format or those located near an established Camping World dealership where we have access to a multitude of brands that compete in the same segment.”
In addition to the manufacturer-specific brands, these locations will offer used RVs, service, and Good Sam products and services.
Camping World plans to initially open exclusively branded dealerships with various manufacturers in the following markets:
Oklahoma City, OK • Macon, GA • Northern Michigan • La Mirada, CA • Redding, CA • St. George, UT • Green Bay, WI • Lakeville, MN • Little Rock, AR
SOURCE: Business Wire
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From my recollection, Camping World versions of RV’s were simply “priced reduced” versions of existing models.
CW is suffering from their self inflicted wounds. All they are doing is changing shirts. A new sign will not change the business plan. How many names has Gander had in the last couple of years and nothing has changed.
CW talks a good game, but fails as they don’t “walk the talk”. CW just bought out the 4 Seasons dealership locally, and I can almost imagine which way this is going to go with trying to force out others. Typically, CW carries low to mid range units, and pretty much cares less about after sales service to the customer. Now, zeroing in on specific brands as “CW” specific lots – well, time will tell. I think Lemonis has gone too far, too fast and is going to end up with a huge inventory and carrying cost issue based on today’s market and interest rates. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy….
CW’s debt is triple it’s market cap and the cash on the balance sheet is only 4% of it’s debt. That business model seldom works. The only two saving grace scenarios i see is a) selling financing for new sales maintaining a higher total, and rate than the debt service needs on the balance sheet. A cash poor demo is needed for that. and b) A dealer marriage or courtship with manufacturers could extend terms for inventory debt or future inventories being provided without commitments.
Regardless, 2016 ($23/share) thru end of 2019 ($3.50/share), the stock lost 80% of its value. Then covid floated the ship thru 2021 ($42/share). Mid 2021 thru today ($23/share), it has lost half it’s value AGAIN. If your business model relies on a once per century global pandemic, you may want to re-tool and marry your vendors.
Camping World and Jayco. Yeah, they belong together. What a couple of ass-hole outfits.
We are former Good Sam members from the time before Lemonis bought it. After he gutted its local chapters and killed our monthly Trailer Life subscription, we dropped our membership and refuse to buy anything from Camping World. So he can brand anything he wants, which means we will never even consider buying it!
Ah, but see, that’s the whole point, people going to a Jayco Center or whatever will not know they are really Camping World in disguise.
It’s like when Comcast became the most hated company in America. The solution was not to give decent service, but to ‘re-brand’ themselves Xfinity.
You make a very good point.
Watching the digression of the RV industry over the years has been painful. “Good” quality brands today are worse than what the few poor quality brands were 30 years ago. It used to be easy to find friendly, family owned RV dealerships that cared about more than that one sale vs the myriad of mega-dealerships now that could care less about the customer.
The big change has been the reduction of independent manufacturers, dealers, and campgrounds. Lack of competition breeds complacency in customer care, higher prices and lower quality.
Just Say NO to “Camping World Holdings” And Marcus Lemonis! Do The Research And You Will Understand Why Over 90% Of RVT Comments Reflect “Disgust” In This Holdings Company AND Its Dear Leader, ML….
Did camper world buy van Boxtel rv in Green Bay or not. Does anyone know. Seeing how I’m currently working in Green Bay and I drive past van Boxtel rv I will keep looking to see if the sign goes from van Boxtel to camping world.
Hi, Jeff. I just looked it up online. This is from businesswire.com as of June 14: “Camping World Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CWH) (“Camping World”), the World’s Largest Recreation Dealer, today announced that it is set to acquire Van Boxtel RV in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The acquisition is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2023 and will increase the Company’s Wisconsin location count to seven.” Have a good night. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Thank you Diane. I just did a search and saw the same article from business wire.
You’re welcome, Jeff. (Sorry. I forgot I was going to link it in the comment.) There were a few articles about this, actually. I noticed them when I double-checked the spelling of the dealership when I was proofing the post. Wow. Between Camping World and AI, I wonder which will take over the world first?🤔😅 Have a good night. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Diane,
When camping world bought out gander mountain in Green Bay Wisconsin camping world shut the store down because there was no room to sell campers. Last I heard camper world was looking to reopen in Green Bay. Little did I know that camping world planned to buy van Boxtel rv which is located right across the highway from camping world’s old store. The old store was by woodman’s grocery store.
Interesting. Thanks for the info, Jeff.👍 They’re certainly on a mission. Take care. 😀 –Diane
I hope that Newmar is never the brand associated with a Camping World. That would imply to me that Newmar had sunk pretty low. No Camping World presently sells new Newmars and hopefully that continues. 🙂 😎