Recreational vehicles are a popular commodity here in western Colorado, particularly because of the easy access to camping and outdoor activities in the region, according to a report by The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colo.
As many industries struggled throughout the course of the pandemic, RV dealers reported steady sales numbers despite the economic disruption stoked by COVID-19.
“Just like everyone else, we were taken aback when everything shut down, but quickly people realized that one of the things you can do during a pandemic is get outdoors. It ended up being a great time for us. It hasn’t slowed down for us, and we’re dead even with last year, which was a record year, as was the year before that,” said Brad Carver, general manager at Centennial RV.
Bob Scott RVs reports similar findings, claiming that they, too, have seen a strong demand for campers in the last few years. Inventory, however, has been one of the primary issues these dealers have experienced.
Chris Bratager, sales manager at Bob Scott RVs attributes a lower production rate, caused by the pandemic, to weakened overall inventory on their lot, making it feel as though they’re “always empty.”
“Inventory has improved though. It’s better now than it was,” Bratager said. “Manufacturers have had to adjust their approach because of the pandemic, but they’re starting to get caught up again. Manufacturers have had to focus more on products that people were buying a lot of, which in turn helped us out. It got us our inventory in time. Still not like it used to be, but slowly improving.”
Paul Roach, the manager at Humphrey RV, says inventory has been very challenging, especially for the smaller dealers. At Humphrey, they’ve only gotten back to an inventory they’re happy with since this last winter. Still, Roach thinks that it’ll be difficult to replenish units as fast as they’d like come high season.
Roach says that although they’ve done fine amidst the pandemic, inventory was certainly one of the biggest obstacles.
“The industry basically ran out of product. There was hardly any inventory for the entire nation. The supply chain issues meant that we were selling RVs as fast as they were coming onto our lot. We did grow right through the pandemic though, it was two record years in fact,” Roach said.
