RVDA’s Pearo: Model Year ’23 and Current Sales Environment

Editor’s Note: The following column, written by Mike Pearo, RVDA Chairman of the Board and owner of Hilltop Camper and RV in Fridley, Minn., appears in the October edition of RV Executive Today. It is reprinted by permission.

Mike Pearo

As we make our way through the fall season, it’s a great time to reflect on the results of the 2022 selling season and look ahead to the 2023 product as well as the upcoming winter and spring sales selling seasons.

It’s amazing how fast the year goes! The 2022 selling season provided us another host of chal- lenges and obstacles to navigate while still working through COVID-19. As many of us became experts at navigating COVID and the changing CDC guidelines, we were thrown one heck of a curve ball, or should I say curve balls.

We were first faced with the start of a war, followed by rising fuel costs, continued infla- tion, a declining stock market, and then a hike in interest rates. As I reflect on what the 2022 selling season threw at us, I can’t help but feel blessed that our business performed as well as it did.

The start of the selling season felt like an extension of our 2021 year, but we began to realize that our unit count was continuing to decrease year over year. Once we dug into this issue, we found that our entry level travel trailers and motorized units were the largest reasons for this decline. The motorized decrease was easy to explain with the continual chassis shortage.

The decrease in entry level travel trailers was more of a concern and left us with more questions than answers. We knew it was not an inventory issue as we had done a good job securing that product and were ready to supply the demand. The only issue was that we were not seeing the demand we anticipated.

Was that due to the entry level product being higher priced than in the past? Was that buyer just sitting on the sidelines? Or was a competitor taking those sales from us? Like many dealers around the country, we found ourselves receiving product at a much higher rate than we had the past two seasons and with the decrease in sales by unit count, we needed to become inventory mangers once again. After nearly two years of buying whatever we could get our hands on, this was a rude awakening for many of us.

Back to analyzing our inventory by model, planning, and forecasting. We pushed for more product and the suppliers and manufactures responded. Although this forces us back into having to manage inventory, this also brings us closer to some normalcy.

With inventory levels coming back, we were excited to see that the demand for RV’s has remained. I often am asked, “so what is selling?” As we analyze what is selling, it’s exciting to see that nearly everything is. The spotlight that shined on our industry during the height of COVID has not faded and we are seeing newer and younger buyers.
These buyers are not all the same and the variety of products being requested has caused us and the manufacturers to focus on styles of campers that were not always in high demand. We are still selling traditional travel trailers, fifth wheels, and motorized, but we are also seeing a higher demand for Class B vans, niche travel trailers, and toy haulers. Now that 2023 production is in full swing, it’s exciting to see all the new floorplans, inventive camper styles, and new compo- nents.

Our industry is continuing its growth and with that growth, new and exciting things have been developed. I feel very confi- dent that we will hold onto these new buyers and continue to bring new people into RVing with the rapid change and enormous amount of variety our industry has accomplished. After navigating another strange year, we are set up for success to continue to clear the hurdles ahead.

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/rvdas-pearo-model-year-23-and-current-sales-environment/