Lazydays executives said the dealer’s mid-May RV inventory is among the industry’s healthiest. To get there, the dealer chain “saw the writing on the wall.”
Company CEO John North said the first-quarter change was necessary.
“I think the big change for us in the first quarter,” he said, “was really needing to get through a lot of that inventory and get healthy, and we saw the writing on the wall and took our pain and moved through it.”
Lazydays Vice President, Operations Amber Dillard said the deal chain has five 2022 RVs and just under 300 2023 RVs in its inventory. Lazydays has less than 50 2025 model-year RVs in stock, with over 90% of its inventory in the 2024 and 2025 model years.
With the continued purging of aged inventory, North said Lazydays has improved its F&I penetration. He said Lazydays’ F&I sold per RV, on a same-store basis, rose $170 in the first quarter of 2024 from the first quarter of 2023. The increase came despite average sales prices falling 13% over the same period.
In January, 59% of RVs financed included F&I sales. The total rose to 69% in April and 75% in the first two weeks of May.
The increases came “without the benefit of having as many aggressively priced units that are easier to finance due to a lower loan-to-value ratio,” he said. “I am proud of our financial services managers for the effort they have shown to increase our gross profit generation in this critical revenue stream.”
North said retail demand thus far in 2024 has focused on low-end towable RVs. Over 30% of Lazydays’ 2024 new sales have been in travel trailers priced under $30,000.
“We have been thoughtful about the high-end and heavy product as well,” North said. “The motorized product…does not generate the grosses that it has historically because we have been trying to turn it faster. With floorplan financing at 8%, funding of $500,000 or $700,000 units gets pretty costly every month if you are not turning them.”
In working with OEMs on lower-priced RVs to meet market demand, North singled out Lazydays’ relationship with Grand Design.
“Even like Grand Design, they are coming out with the low-end stuff that is more affordable because they see where the market is,” North said. “They are our No. 1 partner in terms of units. I think 40% of what we sold in ’23 was Grand Design.”
North also singled out Coachmen’s Catalina travel trailers among its top-selling RVs. He said the RVs have a reasonable price point and are competitive with RVs aimed at first-time buyers.
Finally, North said the company’s sales focus on clearing aged inventory has been shifting since January to target service. He said service is a consistent, foundational aspect of Lazydays’ operations.
“There is a reason that we call it fixed operations,” he said. “It is supposed to help cover your fixed costs. We are at 5.5% of revenue was service revenue. That should be 10% plus, so that is an area where there is tremendous opportunity in capacity.”
