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“Under this format, select individual dealerships will be dedicated exclusively to selling, servicing and showcasing that brand’s latest innovation and product offering, with a tailored, brand-specific customer experience and specialized staff training,” stated Lemonis regarding a plan that he says is already underway with the recent rollout of a Jayco Morgan Hill facility in California among others.
Marcus Lemonis
In addition to the Golden State facility, Lemonis said, THOR’s Keystone RV division is initially working with Camping World to possibly open single-brand stores in northern Michigan and Minnesota while an unnamed manufacturer-exclusive outlet is also in the works near newly acquired Van Boxtel RV in Green Bay, Wis. – the acquisition of which was announced today.
“We are in discussions right now with every major manufacturer to see if they have an appetite or they have ideas around this and we are getting positive feedback,” added Lemonis. “I would expect us to have 11 manufacturer-specific stores open by the early fall time frame.”
Suffice to say that this greatly expanded CWH approach could well impact the industry’s retail footprint in a significant way – not that single-brand dealerships aligned with individual RV manufacturers haven’t existed and thrived for years in various U.S. locations.
Given the general prospects for CWH’s new single-brand initiative, which comes on the heels of a recent high-profile series of dealership acquisitions, Lemonis agreed to again address publicly held CWH’s plans on the record with RVBusiness:
RVB: So, Marcus, what’s behind this whole single-brand initiative?
Lemonis: “Well, there’s three primary reasons why we really believe that this is a good additional business strategy for our company. The first is that we have never felt more optimistic about the future of the RV business. While we’re in this lull of RV shipments, and while RV retail registrations are temporarily suppressed, we know that the number of people who are RVing in the country is going nowhere but up. That’s the first leg on the stool.
“The second leg on the stool is really driven by two things. One is we have an absolute appetite to grow our business. But we also think it’s important – with all the investments that manufacturers have made in recent years around product and parts innovation and service support and ways to communicate with consumers and really trying to evolve into a modern-day company – that the current dealer body structure do its best to help manufacturers present their differentiating offerings to consumers, putting them on their own platform and allowing everybody to view their product lineups and the infrastructure that supports it. The way it’s communicated is a unique opportunity for manufacturers to play a bigger role directly with the consumer. That’s the second one.
“The third thing is really probably more near and dear to my heart, and it’s probably more of what people outside of the RV industry would expect from me. But as I look back at my 20 years, and I’m not going to be in this industry forever, the one thing that I’ve enjoyed and been disappointed by in the same breath is our ability, our company’s ability to help multi-generational families monetize their life’s work.
“Up until now, dealer acquisitions had to look a certain way. Was it big enough? Did they have a big enough showroom? Was it in the right market? Do they have the right brand?
RVB: You’re talking about dealers who are interested in selling their businesses, right?
Lemonis: Yes, there’s these have and have nots in a dealer’s ability – a family that has worked for 30 years – to monetize and create generational wealth for their family. Then, this new idea, this new line that we have launched already allows us to look at acquisitions very differently and allows us to look at longstanding 10-, 15-, 20-, 30-plus year dealers who may not have big facilities and indoor showrooms that tend to attract buyers.
“Whether they’re in big markets or small markets, it allows us to hopefully, over a series of years, provide an exit strategy for those dealers who historically have been left out of that acquisition discussion because they didn’t meet a certain mark or check a certain box.
“When I put all three of those legs on the stool together, we end up with a brand-new line of business that is complementary to our traditional business.
“We also want to help work with the manufacturers to set a very high-bar standard, meaning that when you go into these facilities, much like you would an automotive dealership, that it surely meets the professional standards of the RV manufacturers.
RVB: What then does this do for Camping World in the big picture inasmuch as you’re already adding stores here at an unprecedented clip. Where does this take you next?
Lemonis: “We made a commitment to the market that we were going to grow our store base by 50%. We believe that in order to do that profitably and prudently, we need to acquire and/or open stores of all shapes and sizes in lots of different markets.
“I think 10 years ago, we would’ve believed that the RV market was only good in a handful of top markets. But as we continue to open up stores in the more remote areas of New Hampshire and Minnesota, we realized that the RV industry can really be everywhere, although the size of that facility, the fixed costs associated with that facility, need to flex up and down based on the size of the market. This to me provides a very long runway for acquisitions and store openings that a Camping World store may not have traditionally been able to fill up as easily.”
RVB: One more question for the moment: The photo we ran with yesterday’s story featured a Jayco road-side sign with no mention of Camping World? Is that the approach with the all of the signage involved with these new single-brand stores?
Lemonis: “These stores will not all have Camping World signage. They are meant to be specific to the manufacturer of that particular location – their look, their feel, their colors, their standards, their expectations, working with their marketing team to ensure that what they’re delivering online or at shows and other places is properly representing their own standards, not Camping World’s.”
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