Newmar Wraps Up Dealer Meeting With Awards Event – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Newmar Corporation saluted its top dealer partners Thursday night during its annual Dealer Meeting, which concludes today at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Under the theme of “A Heritage of Craftsmanship,” the motorhome manufacturer and subsidiary of Winnebago Industries also unveiled its 2025 model year motorhomes during the three-day event as well as briefed its dealer partners on a number of company initiatives and updates.
Following opening day presentations by Newmar President Casey Tubman, Vice President of Sales Matt Ellinger and Vice President of Engineering Paul White, Thursday’s presenters included Vice President of Operations Kevin Bogan and Vice President of Marketing & Strategy Ryan Buurstra.
During his time on stage, Bogan highlighted the company’s continued efforts to increase safety measures as well as its ongoing changes to improve the internal quality of Newmar’s processes prior to shipment.
Among those process improvements include implementation of a Pre-Shipment Verification Sheet – a final check and verification to insure any out of process work is completed – as well as supplier-led in-plant audits to insure we are using and installing their components as designed. Over 250 supplier audits were performed by 67 different suppliers in the last year, Bogan noted.
Thanks to facility enhancements, he also shared a the “dramatic improvement” of the flow of motorhomes after clear coat and prior to test drive.
“This week we started the new flow,” Bogan said. “Each coach now travels much less distance and in and out of buildings only 2 times, and includes some favorable improvements to process quality.” Bogan said, before adding Newmar also “totally restructured” its Hardwood Finish Process.
“The benefits will be improving the safety of the spray environment, re-engineering the air flow and creating the capability and capacity to spray all the new colors,” he said. “This project started in November and will be completed by early May in time for model year 2025 production.”
For his part, Buurstra, a former Whirlpool marketing exec who only recently joined Newmar, shared his vision in leading the marketing efforts at Newmar.
“Some people think of marketing as advertising. Others think it means product development and strategy. While it does involve all of those things, I think that marketing can be boiled down to two things: One, understanding what your customers need and, two, finding ways to provide solutions to those needs,” he said.
Buurstra then delved into how the company will seek feedback from a variety of current and prospective Newmar owners across a multitude of touchpoints.
“All of this builds an intimate understanding of the existing and emerging audiences to position Newmar as the preeminent motorized brand for anyone wanting to live the RV lifestyle to the absolute fullest,” he said before directly addressing the dealer audience to solicit their assistance. “When we design products and plan advertising and branded communications, we have to take into account both the owner and the shopper, and we have to make sure that what we put out there works for both. And that is where you come in.’
“You are experts in this industry,” Buurstra continued. “You know your customers, you hear what is going through the shoppers’ mind – what they are confused about, what they ask for that isn’t available – and those are the things that we would absolutely appreciate you sharing with us. Because if we can offer one more thing that a customer is looking for, or remove one more reason for them to walk off of your lot without making a purchase, we want to know about it.”
Top 10 Dealers for 2023
- Blue Compass RV (San Marcos, CA; Palm Desert, CA; Albany, NY; Sonny’s, NC; Charolotte, NC; Tampa, FL; Manteca, CA; Appleway, WA; Buffalo, NY)
- Campers Inn RV (Jacksonville, FL; Tom’s River, NJ; Clarksville, IN)
- Demartini RV Sales (Grass Valley, CA)
- General RV (Winter Garden, FL; Wixom, MI; Richmond, VA; Draper, UT; North Canton, OH; Huntly, IL; Elizabethtown, PA)
- Holiday World RV (Alvarado, TX; Katy, TX; Willis, TX)
- Lazydays RV (Phoenix, AZ; Woodland, WA; Milwaukee, WI)
- Midway Motor Homes (Grand Rapids, MI)
- National Indoor RV Centers (Lewisville, TX; Lawrenceville, GA; N. Las Vegas, NV; Manassas, VA; Lebanon, TN)
- North Trail RV Center (Ft. Myers, FL)
- Transwest Truck Trailer & RV (Frederick, CO; Grand Junction, CO; Fountain, CO; Belton, MO)
