In second-quarter financial information released by LKQ Corp., NTP-Stag’s parent company, President and CEO Dominick Zarcone discussed the company’s RV segment performance.
The specialty segment, which includes NTP-Stag’s operations, registered sales down 11.5% from the second quarter of 2021. However, Zarcone said the RV parts category performed better than the rest of the segment. He said the comparison to last year’s segment results was difficult because the segment grew 30% in the second quarter of 2021.
“Demand for the majority of our RV parts offerings is driven more by the size of the RV part and not new RV unit volume,” Zarcone said. “That said, certain product groups, such as towing, that have some exposure to new unit volume underperformed in the quarter.”
Zarcone said RV parts performance is more closely tied to campground spending than to new RV sales.
“A lot of what we sell are replacements and consumables, and that all relates to the utilization of those units,” he said. “If you go back to the financial crisis, The Great Recession, campground spending was flat. (RV parts sales) hung right in there. … Some of it is a comp against almost an unrealistic comp of what we did in 2021. The specialty group, including all parts of the specialty group, are doing better and they are clawing their way back to prior-year volumes, at least in the first few days of the third quarter. We probably won’t get there for the quarter as a whole, but we are closing the gap.”
