Grocery stores, drug stores, apparel retailers and big-box stores often work with suppliers to create their own brands.
The products are referred to as store brands or private-label products. The brands are controlled by the retailer, providing opportunities to offer low-cost alternatives or value-added competitions to name brand products.
In the RV industry, RV dealers and dealer chains have begun adopting the private labeling strategy of many other industries by asking RV manufacturers to build privately labeled vehicles exclusively for their dealer locations.
Camping World's Coleman travel trailer was the top seller in 2024, according to Statistical Surveys Inc.
Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis said, “Over a decade ago, our company started down this path with our OEM partners. Today, we partner with them on design and sourcing, looking for innovative ways to find new consumers through creative solutions around towing weight, modernized floorplans and features, with the idea of enhancing content while letting our size and scale yield true value creation for the customer.”
Proof of Concept
More than one-third of Camping World's new RV sales are exclusive brands. The company’s success has been a slow buildup over time as dealer chain executives determined the right floorplans, features, benefits and price points to match consumer needs.
Lemonis said when he contemplated a private-label strategy, the idea was limited to changing a small feature in a model made by an RV manufacturer. The company dived deeper into inventory, a process led by President Matthew Wagner. The relationship between Camping World and manufacturers evolved.
“We really look at the relationship between the product that we want to bring to market and the expertise that the manufacturers have as an unbelievable resource,” Lemonis said. “(We understand) how to use key data and metrics to develop the right floorplan at the right price, at the right time, with contenting the product up, not de-contenting it down. Then, (we use) our size, our scale, our relationship with suppliers that feed into those manufacturers, our intensity around ordering with those manufacturers when we know they have soft spots, to be a good partner with them.”
The Coleman Lantern 17B is among the top-selling travel trailer floorplans in the U.S. Camping World worked with Dutchmen RV, and now Keystone RV, to develop the model. Wagner said before the 17B’s 2019 introduction, similar floorplans did not exist.
The 20-foot-5-inch-long travel trailer has no slides and weighs just over 3,000 pounds dry. The RV features bunks in the rear, opposite a full bath. A north-south queen bed is up front. The new RV retails for about $13,500, with a target monthly payment close to $100.
“On first glance, it looks like a relatively utilitarian concept or idea,” Wagner said. “That came off of years of research to understand what that actual price point was, or what those features were that consumers required, and about a decade-plus of information to target certain floorplans, content features, et cetera.”
Private Brand Players
Some of the larger dealer chains are among those leaning into a private-label sales strategy.
Camping World has 209 stores. It offers 36 private-label brands and more than 150 floorplans, covering travel trailers and fifth wheels, destination trailers, toy haulers and all three motorhome types.
Blue Compass RV has more than 100 stores and offers more than 20 floorplans for travel trailers and motorhomes.
Campers Inn has 41 stores and offers three towable brands with 13 floorplans.
Bish's RV has 21 stores and offers four towable brands with 26 floorplans.
Although Camping World has employed a private label /contract manufacturing strategy for nearly two decades, others are relative newcomers to the concept.
Campers Inn launched its Friendship travel trailers nine years ago. Blue Compass employed a private-label strategy early in the company’s history, which began in 2018. Bish's RV began selling its Wayfinder RV private label brand in 2023.
Affordability is Key
Numerous reasons lead retailers to create a private-label sales strategy. Affordability is typically among the most important.
In a 2023 blog post announcing Bish’s Go Play brand introduction, RV Brand Manager Mason Lucero wrote that the dealer chain wanted RVers to get an affordably priced camper by buying directly from the manufacturer. The opportunity echoes the company’s initial entrance into selling RVs. In 1989, Tadd Jenkins, grandson of company founder Bish Jenkins, placed a minimum order of six RVs from a manufacturer to buy the RV he wanted at a lower price. Tadd Jenkins eventually sold all six RVs and established the Bish’s RV dealership in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Lucero said, “We finally found a way to make this happen.”
Bish’s President Todd Nuttall said the company came up with the Wayfinder RV concept years before implementing the strategy.
“The real purpose behind the brand,” he said, “is how do we help get customers a product that offers more amenities and more practical solutions for camping? Could we bring a product with great options and great features and not have to be more expensive?”
Campers Inn's Daniel Knight began his career with Camping World, where he led a dealership location to record-breaking sales. He brought a private-label sales background to Campers Inn eight years ago. The dealer chain's private-label strategy was already underway when he joined. Campers Inn worked with Gulf Stream Coach and Cruiser RV to create the Friendship and Embrace brands.
The company’s strategy evolved from a private-label, higher-margin, limited models sales concept under Knight's leadership.
“We did not see that model as being the effective plan for Campers Inn RV in a competitive towable market,” he said. “After the Covid selling years, we knew there was an opportunity to improve our towable sales. Here we are with a slightly different strategy in recent years, and it continues to evolve here in 2025.”
Providing affordable private-label offerings is now driving Campers Inn's strategy. Knight said pursuing affordability was not intended to become a race to the bottom as he has seen with some other dealers.
“We have not been as focused on hitting the bottom price point… where you are very unlikely to return a quality net profit to the dealership, and benefit a sales organization without a significant increase in volume, which requires added personnel, pay changes, variable costs and more,” he said. “We respect the strategy of others to sell a larger volume of lower-priced inventory, considering the affordability of RVs indeed brings customers into dealerships. However, we are typically a more premium-focused, service-oriented and relationship-driven dealership group. Our private-label strategy helps open the door to new opportunities in many of our markets where customers would prefer an improved or premium buying experience at an affordable price.”
Campers Inn's privately branded vehicles are not core focused on the $10,000 to $20,000 price, although they will include those models on a limited basis. Most of the company’s private label RVs start around the $19,995 price point. Other vehicles are priced at $24,995, $29,995 and $34,995.
“Affordability is more common right now than it has ever been before,” Knight said of private-label sales. “The ability to work with a manufacturer to provide enjoyable towable floorplans, with key content and features that matter at that level of affordability, is of importance to us.”
The Right Stuff
Retailers agree that simply providing a cheap RV with a private-label brand is not the goal. Dealerships seek to determine the key features and benefits consumers require while working with manufacturing partners to lower costs elsewhere and provide affordability.
Nuttall said, “That was really our goal from the beginning—finding great manufacturers who would partner with us in this endeavor to try to bring high-quality, feature-rich products at a price point that is at or below what the industry average is.”
In Bish's Go Light single-axle trailers, the RVs bring features found in a 30-foot travel trailer into a 14-foot box. Each Go Light model includes full bathrooms, a kitchen with a microwave and refrigerator, a side-mounted or roof-mounted air conditioner and an awning.
Coleman's Lantern 17B features a four-seat convertible dinette. The kitchen includes a refrigerator, microwave, two-burner cooktop and a sink. The interior includes a wall-mounted air conditioner. The exterior features an 8-foot power awning.
Key features Campers Inn includes in its private brands are power jacks, upgraded front caps to create a better visual appeal, stylish exteriors and an upgraded entry step.
“There are a variety of ways we could go,” Knight said. “We want to be more on trend with current technology, appearance and features, while removing some of the basic looks, and the not-so-important technology.”
Knight cited solar power as an example. He said solar panels on a 12-foot, single-axle trailer are likely not important to the consumer, but a traditional travel trailer with more premium content might require solar power and solar capability.
“There are just some features we would add and some features that we believed that we could take away,” he said, “and still create a phenomenal camping experience at an affordable price.”
Retailers have various methods for determining the features and benefits consumers require.
Camping World has a product development team. The members scour the dealer chain's internal sales data and Statistical Survey Inc. registrations to determine top-selling floorplans and features.
Knight said Campers Inn relies heavily on market share reports, including internal and external data, to monitor sales trends and the common attributes of top-selling RVs. The data and reports helped lead the dealer chain's strategy towards private label integration.
Nuttall said Bish’s first finds areas where the dealer chain and manufacturer can strip operating costs out of production. The company reaches out to consumers to gain feedback on features and benefits to select additional features into the final model.
“We are learning from all of it and trying to determine how we can incorporate some of that feedback,” he said. “We are trying to take it all in and figure out how to build what the customer wants.”
Model Variety
Bish's RVs are sold under the Wayfinder RV brand as Go Explore, Go Lite and Go Play.
The Go Explore laminated travel trailers provide “premium features without the premium price tag,” according to the company's website. The models range in length from 26 feet to 32 feet and are priced around $29,995.
Go Play stick-and-tin travel trailers include nine floorplans based on 70% of the industry's most popular layouts. The models range in length from 21feet to 30 feet and from $12,996 to $27,995. The RVs are 8-foot-wide bodies with a truss roof and a heated, enclosed underbelly.
Go Light single-axle, stick-and-tin travel trailers are 16 feet long and weigh from 2,300 to 2,560 pounds dry. The RVs cost between $16,995 and $17,495.
Blue Compass RV features two private-label brands. Aurora-branded travel trailers, made by Forest River, range from 20 feet in length and 3,000 pounds dry to 38 feet in length and 8,700 pounds dry. Geneva-branded motorhomes, made by Thor Motor Coach, include Type A and Type C motorhomes. Seven Geneva floorplans are available, ranging in length from 21 feet to 32 feet.
Campers Inn features three private-label brands. Embrace-branded laminate travel trailers are made by Cruiser RV. They range from 21 feet to 38 feet long. Forest River-built Westbrook-branded stick-and-tin travel trailers are 20-foot-long, single-axle RVs weighing 3,700 pounds dry. Venture/KZ-built CampBound-branded stick-and-tin travel trailers range in length from 16 feet to 30 feet.
Camping World has private brands in every towable and motorized segment. Coleman travel trailers are made by Keystone RV.
Eddie Bauer brand towables are made by Dutchmen RV. Both brands include stick-and-tin and laminated models.
Forest River makes Campsite Reserve-branded stick-and-tin travel trailers.
Gulf Stream Coach makes Enlighten-branded stick-and-tin models. Forest River makes Nightfall-branded toy haulers. Mallard-branded laminate travel trailers were made by Heartland RV but are now built by Dutchmen RV.
Thor Motor Coach makes Camping World's private-label motorized brands. Motorized vehicles include Freedom Traveler-branded Type A models, Freedom Elite-branded Type Bs and Eddie Bauer-branded Type B and B-plus models. Type C models are branded as Coleman, Eddie Bauer and Freedom Elite.
Building a Winning Strategy
Another aspect of a private-label strategy is the ability to offer a broader RV selection in markets where franchise agreements limit brand availability.
In crowded markets, dealers might be unable to offer a full lineup of towables and motorhomes. In the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas market, upwards of 20 RV dealerships serve the metro area. A dealership seeking to enter the market could have difficulty signing a franchise agreement with a manufacturer's brand not already represented.
Private-label brands provide a dealership with additional selections from manufacturers already in the market, similar to mirror brands such as Forest River's Flagstaff and Rockwood.
If a Camping World store could not offer Dutchmen RV travel trailers, the store could sell Coleman branded travel trailers made by Dutchmen.
If Blue Compass cannot sell a Thor Motor Coach motorhome because a market competitor owns the franchise agreement, the Blue Compass store can sell a Geneva branded motorhome, exclusive to its location, made by Thor Motor Coach.
Wagner said, “We are able to enter a number of different marketplaces that traditionally we would be confined by different OEM brands. By means of having a full offering of all our private label and contract manufacturer brands, we are able to enter into any marketplace within the United States.”
Knight said the strategy can work in crowded markets. Knight said Campers Inn is still more likely to partner with, or seek a more well-known quality manufacturer brand within a market, to establish itself in a market. Then, Campers Inn uses its private-label brands to enhance the store's inventory and marketing capabilities.
“In certain markets, private label certainly proved to be something very fruitful to add to our inventory mix,” he said. “In some markets, it was not necessary because there are either opportunities with a manufacturer or brand to grow outside of private label, or opportunities to grow share and profitability through more impactful products.”
Knight said a more strategic piece lay in the ability for a multi-store dealer chain to train on, sell and market the same RV brands in a majority of locations.
By controlling RV invoices, Knight's private-label brands remain consistent across the company’s 41 nationwide locations. Individual store managers cannot order unique or different floorplans that might connect with specific local consumers.
Knight said store-specific RVs can and will be successful and a large part of the company’s strategy, particularly among premium-branded towable products. He said he does see a pathway to increasing sales with a nationwide private label marketing strategy. He acknowledged the private label strategy could short-change some stores of higher-margin opportunities if private label products replaced already impactful RVs.
Knight said, “It can actually be a hindrance for us to drive a certain price point or cross-merchandise at an agreed-upon set sales price at all our locations. We will continue to monitor that, as we would our entire mix and product portfolio.”
The concept of having the same RV brands at multiple locations eases the sharing and selling opportunities for dealerships and improves the company’s ability to manage order quantities and stocking levels.
The private-label strategy enables Campers Inn to cross-train sales and service employees and better oversee quality and reliability. The strategy provides necessary feedback to a manufacturer, enabling the dealership and manufacturer to quickly adapt to the market supply needs, improve quality or pivot when necessary.
Bish's Vice President of Marketing Chris Blanchard said the dealer chain's private-label strategy will deliver value to consumers without breaking the bank.
“The future for Wayfinder RV is really exciting,” he said, “because anywhere that we think we can come in and provide really high value for customers and provide something for customers that they are not currently getting, that is where Wayfinder is going to go.”
Disclaimer: This article was originally published by RV News in their Aug 2025 issue, and can be found here.
