Oliver Travel Trailers said its RVDA exhibiting experience paid off in numerous partnerships with RV dealerships.
Among the dealerships signed up to carry Oliver’s fiberglass travel trailers are Princess Craft RV in Texas and Southland RV in Georgia.
Chase Rhode of Field and Sports, who represents Oliver, said dealers’ response was overwhelming.
“We had hoped to partner with enough dealers this year to cover our projections while maintaining the highest quality-built travel trailers in the industry,” he said. “We are slowly adding partners. We are only going to have so many and then stop. We have identified the hottest markets for our past sales history and look to fill those more regionally, by state, giving dealers more opportunity at success, versus overcrowding by BTA.”
Princess Craft RV owner PJ Buerger said she was impressed by the manufacturer’s design.
“Oliver has really perfected the lightweight fiberglass trailer, with extraordinary style and design at every turn,” Buerger said. “The fiberglass construction makes this trailer not only beautiful but extremely durable. Princess Craft is always looking to represent the best in the business when it comes to smaller lightweight options and we are thrilled to be a part of the Oliver team.”
Phil Melfa, Oliver’s director of business development, said the recent announcement of Lazydays RV carrying Bowlus’ travel trailers showed Oliver’s path from direct-to-consumer sales to RV dealership distribution made sense.
“It shows to us we are on the right path,” Melfa said, “that the market is there for higher-end travel trailers and to be partnering with dealers.”
Southland RV co-owners Eddie Correa and Brett Hensley said adding Oliver’s RVs to the dealership is a natural fit.
“We specialize in niche products,” the owners said. “Oliver has been an icon in the hulled fiberglass business for quite some time now and are the benchmark.”
Oliver co-owner Scott Oliver said keeping a steady RV supply for dealers and not exceeding demand will assure dealers better margins and turn rates.
“Our program should be a relief to current and future dealer partners that we are not beating their doors down to take units now, but rather six months or later from now,” he said. “Too often the cycle is repeated that when sales grow, production ramps up fast, wipes out the backlog, quality goes down and then product value is diminished. Not at Oliver. We will not compromise quality. Our names are on the trailers and that means everything to us.”
Oliver Director of Operations Rodney Lomax said new models are on the horizon, with plans to build models catering to electric vehicle owners and overlanding customers.
Lomax said, “We want to let them know we are listening and anxious to abide.”
For more information, visit olivertraveltrailers.com and fieldandsports.com.
