Dealers Encouraged with First Days of Ohio RV Supershow

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Jeff Pastore, center, of Hartville RV Center, chats with a couple at the Ohio RV Supershow.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – If the RV industry is holding its breath as the consumer show season gets underway – hoping for some signs a healthy retail demand will return – then the first two days of the Ohio RV Supershow offers a strong indication that people are interested in buying RVs again.

One of those consumers was John Russell, a Cleveland resident, who was attending the show with his wife with the intention of buying either a Class A or C motorhome. The retiree said this would be the first RV for he and his wife, and they want to travel.

“So, we looked at everything, and when you look at the cost of hotels and stuff like that, and where you want to stop, and we realized that if we had an RV, and we towed the car behind it … well, you can visit places and stay a few days, weeks, whatever case may be,” he said.

The Ohio RV Supershow, which runs Jan. 4-8 at the I-X Center in Cleveland, features 400-some units along with booths showcasing RV parts and accessories as well as campgrounds and travel destinations.

This marks the return of the show after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic and, while attendance numbers weren’t yet available, show organizer Amy Girton, executive director of the Great Lakes RV Association, said everyone was very encouraged with the first two days.

Jeff Pastore, president of Hartville RV Center in Hartville, Ohio, noted that there was “good, strong traffic” on opening day.

“I think weather was a big help, but the fact that this is the first show in three years, there was a lot of pent-up demand. Customers were calling the dealership’s phones saying, ‘Hey, are you at the RV show? We want to come up to the RV show,’” Pastore said.

He was then asked whether that traffic translated into an appreciable level of retail demand.

“I would say it this way: Retail interest is super high,” Pastore told RVBusiness. “We’re seeing lots of people here, lots of questions, and people with cash. The units we sold yesterday were with cash. So, I would say retail interest is really, really strong. It’s a little early for me to say whether that translates into solid sales yet.”

Bruce Terveen of General RV Center

Speaking shortly after lunch, Pastore noted that attendees cut across all demographics and product interest was across all segments – both healthy signs for the industry that is still facing some economic headwinds.

“If you look around at the show, there is a fair amount of foot traffic here already and this is a Thursday afternoon,” he said. “And they’re not all retirees. We’re talking about young families. We’ve got people here with children. We still have our Baby Boomers, but we have a lot of Gen X here, and Millennials. It’s all age groups, so the demand is really strong.

“The other thing that we noticed yesterday that really kind of surprised us, it’s across all product categories,” he added. “In other words, they want to talk about these little tiny teardrop trailers just as much as someone wants to talk about a big fifth-wheel that they can spend four months down south or out west in. It seems like the demand is strong in all categories.”

General RV Center Sales Director Bruce Terveen, whose company had close to 90 motorized and towable units on display, said it was great to be back at the show after what had been a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

“Customers have been asking for it and the results are already being seen after the first day-and-a-half of the show. Traffic on the first day was very, very good. Interaction with customers was good. Sales for the first day were a little bit higher than what we had expected. We’re very pleased with the first day attendance and results of the show,” Terveen told RVBusiness.

Based on the first two days, Terveen said General RV has high hopes as far as the rest of the show.

“With what we’re seeing, our expectations are to be similar to 2020 results, which would be very, very strong,” he said. “Really, when you take out 2021 and ’22, the comparables are 2019 and 2020. So, if we could get to that, those results would be very, very strong. We’d be very happy with that.”

Jerammie Uecker of Coachmen RV

Echoing many of those comments was Jerammie Uecker of Coachmen RV, the regional sales manager for the Midwest and Eastern Canada for Clipper and Viking travel trailers lines.

In particular, he noted there was strong interest in the 2023 Clipper 14 CR, a 2,450-pound, 16-foot, single-axle travel trailer that has “an actual bathroom in it, has a rooftop air conditioner, has propane furnace.”

“We’ve had a lot of people in here, a lot of interest in hitting this light of a weight. That’s coming from people pulling with minivans, people pulling with Jeeps, people pulling with small sport utilities that have a 3,500-pound tow rating,” Uecker said. “That’s what we designed this for. And the reaction from the customers this weekend has been absolutely incredible. It’s been awesome.”

The MSRP on the unit was just over $25,000, with show prices advertised at slightly under $15,000.

“And that’s a great, great price,” Uecker noted. “We feel like over the last couple of years, prices kind of eked up a little bit, so we wanted to have the new entry level price point for customers around the country.”

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/dealers-encouraged-with-first-days-of-ohio-rv-supershow/