Dealers Starting to
Make Dent in Camping World’s Growth Curve, But
the Battle Has Just Begun
by
Don Magary
Before the recent acquisition of Camping World few
people outside the Camping World inner circle knew
too much about their business, except that they sold
a lot of aftermarket parts and accessories to the
RVing public. With Camping World’s financial
numbers now public, RV News was able to combine this
latest information with information made public a few
years ago when Camping World’s owners attempted
to take the company public. What we have now is a
ten-year financial picture of Camping World (See
Figure 1)
and it reveals some rather interesting facts.
Retail
Store Sales
First,
we see that RV dealers selling RV aftermarket parts
and accessories have been a lot more effective in
competing with Camping World in recent years than we
thought. (See Chart 1).
During
the 1980s Camping World made spectacular gains in
marketshare, and RV dealers lost millions of dollars
in business to Camping World. Starting around 1990 we
see that Camping World’s growth started leveling
off. That was shortly after dealers pleaded with
their suppliers and distributors to help make them
competitive. Suppliers and distributors responded and
dealers took advantage of the help to the point where
during the past two years Camping World’s
same-store sales actually dropped — 0.7% in 1995
and 4.8% in 1996. Overall Camping World grew,
however, but that was due to new store openings
rather than selling more product at existing stores.
In 1995 Camping World sold $109,783,000 in retail
sales at 24 stores; in 1996 they sold $111,971,000
out of 27 stores. That represents not quite 2% growth
in total retail store sales — not too
impressive.
Comparing
average sales per store we see a decline. In 1995
with 24 stores the average annual per-store-sales was
$4.6 million, and in 1996 the averaged dropped to
$4.1 million with 27 stores. That 1996 number was
less than 1990 when with 18 stores Camping World
averaged $4.2 million per store.
Another
enlightening comparison is that from 1987 with 14
stores to 1990 with 18 stores, Camping World’s
annual average per-store-sales skyrocketed from $3.3
million to $4.2 — almost a million dollars per
store increase, over 27%, in three years.
Camping
World’s President’s Club for consumers is a
success story by itself. A member is entitled to a
variety of benefits including a 10% discount on
merchandise purchased. In 1992, the first year
President’s Club figures were available, 78.7%
of the retail sales at stores were made by
President’s Club members. In 1996 that
percentage had grown to 84.3%.
Analysis
The
good news is dealers are competing with Camping World
better than they did ten years ago or even six years
ago. The bad news is that Camping World is coming
into various dealers’ territories and taking
over $4 million of business away that these local
dealers could have had for themselves. That’s
right, Camping World still plans to expand at the
rate of two stores per year and your market could be
next. And even if Camping World is not in your
community yet, they are selling parts and accessories
in your market, primarily to President’s Club
members, through an ever increasing effective mail
order program. Continued
