RV manufacturer East to West and Fraserway RV are holding an event today at Fraserway RV in Abbotsford, British Columbia, outside of Vancouver at 11 a.m. PDT to celebrate their newly established partnership.
The deal will introduce the East to West fifth-wheel product line to Canada. Fraserway RV will be the first and only dealer in Canada to carry the East to West fifth-wheel line of RVs. Fraserway also sells East to West travel trailer brands Alta and Della Terra, although not exclusively.
The companies said the exclusive fifth-wheel deal will represent a $125 million commitment in orders over the next decade.
Today’s event will include door prizes, RV walk-throughs, a parts sale, free barbecue and a canned food drive. Several East to West team members traveled from Indiana to British Columbia to attend the event including Lisa Liegl Rees, East to West RV founder and general manager; Sales Manager Mark Krol; General Manager Todd Grubb; and Head of Marketing Lindsey Espiritu.
Thomas Lang, national sales manager at Fraserway RV group, and Liegl Rees met and discussed a partnership in 2019, but the pandemic interfered. The two companies are now eager to move forward, Lang said.
Liegl Rees said: “Fr
aserway represents Canada from east to west. There is a lot of harmony in being able to partner with the whole company, with all our brands in all of their stores. It is significant as well to have a committed partner. They are a partner in values as well. We emulate some of the same values in customer relations, giving back to the community, and excelling in customer experience and product quality. This is a great partnership not only for East to West, but for Forest River as well. Just being here with the team is a great starting point for our relationship.”
Fraserway decided the company wanted to establish and support fewer, deeper partner relationships with fewer manufacturers, Lang said. Fraserway has roots in RV manufacturing and manufactures RVs for its rental division.
Fraserway rates OEMs from a place of deep expertise, he said, using quality criteria. The company flagged East to West as a high value brand, he said.
“Having unified product sets is every RV group’s dream,” Lang said.
Carrying an exclusive nationwide line is very unusual, Lang said, especially with competitive marketplaces in Canadian provinces.
The RV marketplace changed remarkably since 2020, Lang said. Fraserway’s average customer age dropped from 55-plus to 33.
“You have your primary base and you have two new-to-industry bases and those demographics bring in expectations of how they consume how they want things to look and feel,” Lang said. “Having partners who are on the pulse of that is a big deal to us. Where we see Lisa and her team, they are on it.”
With many young families entering the RV market, Lang said East to West offers numerous family-friendly features in its RVs.
“There are some really cool modular designs that you can make use of in a way that some of the conventional designs do not,” he said. “So that is key on the F
raserway side. We want those deep relationships with people who are delivering trends and looking forward… They are ticking all the boxes on what that consumer base needs.”
The past two years’ experiences taught Fraserway RV and East to West the importance of having a solid partner through the good times and the bad, Liegl Rees said.
Lang said: “I will mention it because Lisa is pretty humble. From the Fraserway team’s standpoint, having a female-run organization is pretty important. It is giving a feminine lens to this industry that has been of relatively low import… but it is reflected in the product. That was a big decision for the Fraserway group. We are asking how we address females and families entering the marketplace. To have a female-led brand is huge.”
The woman is usually the decision-maker for RV purchases, Liegl Rees said. Each of the East to West product names ends in an “a” because in many languages an “a” at the end of a word denotes the female form of that word.
“We are thankful to be here,” she said. “We have missed being able to travel for a couple of years. Having a great partner with Fraserway and being able to get out of the bubble and get back to meeting in person is wonderful. We could not be more thankful than having a partner like Fraserway.”
