Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis told analysts Wednesday the RV industry appears to have seen the bottom of its recent downturn.
In reporting second-quarter financial results, Lemonis said the industry’s largest dealership group was among the first to say 15 months ago the industry was approaching a downturn.
“We believe we may have seen the bottom and the path up to a more stable and robust outlook seems to be around the corner,” Lemonis said. “We believe growth will be the headline for 2024.”
In wide-ranging remarks, Lemonis said Camping World’s previously announced plans to grow store count by 50% may have undersold the acquisition market.
“Given the unprecedented influx of opportunities, our recent pace of dealership acquisitions and the white space now opened up by our manufacturer-exclusive concept, we are revising our store growth projection plan up,” Lemonis said.
When first announced, Camping World had 188 locations and planned to add 94 over the next five years for a total of 282.
With the uptick, Lemonis revised the goal to over 300 stores.
“The original growth forecast of acquisition and ground-up store openings, plus the exclusive manufacturer locations, would take us to over 320 dealerships at the end of 2028,” he said. “The increase in dealership store count, anchored by our growing used business and all contributing to the growth of our Good Sam business, has set a five-year revenue goal of roughly $11 billion.”
Camping World has scaled back its 2022 model-year RV inventory to just 5% of all inventory. Even as the dealership group has expanded in the first half of 2023, inventory overall has been reduced by nearly $300 million. Lemonis said Camping World stores today are stocking an average of 140 new RVs per site, down from a pre-2020 historical average of 197.
Lemonis said Camping World expects wholesale shipments to rise in 2024 in a range between 370,000 and 400,000 RVs. Executive Vice President Matthew Wagner said the company’s forecast called for fewer than 400,000 retail registrations in 2023 with registrations rising again in 2024.
