Courtesy / Lee's Family Trailer
Lee's Family Trailer sells and services a variety of RVs, including "fifth wheels," which are towed by a connection in a pickup truck's cargo compartment.
Updated: February 24, 2021
As more RVs take to the road, Windham dealership is selling to national chain
Courtesy / Lee's Family Trailer
Lee's Family Trailer sold 1,000 RVs from its Windham dealership last year.
By William Hall
Lee’s Family Trailer, a recreational vehicle seller in Windham that had sales last year of nearly $40 million, is being acquired by a national RV dealership chain with big plans for entering the Pine Tree State.
Camping World Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CWH), which owns and operates more than 170 branches in 38 states, plans to buy Lee’s for an undisclosed price, according to a news release. The sale is expected to close in April and would make Lee’s the first Camping World location in Maine.
Camping World, headquartered in Lincolnshire, Ill., then plans to rebrand the Maine business, at 480 Roosevelt Trail, and also is looking to open at least one other location in the state.
“It’s our intention with acquisitions like this to complete our goal of operating our recreational dealer platform in all 48 contiguous states,” Camping World Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis said in the release. Elsewhere in New England, Camping World has two locations in Massachusetts and two in New Hampshire.
Dan Craffey, owner of Lee’s, told Mainebiz on Tuesday that all 44 of his employees would retain jobs under Camping World’s management. The changeover would expand the range of RVs, parts, accessories, outdoor lifestyle and camping products available at Lee’s, he said, but thinks operations will otherwise remain the same.
“We’re running well, so why change it?” Craffey said, and noted that Camping World approached him about selling.
Lee’s is now completing a nine-acre expansion of its sales lot. (RV dealers need large spaces.) Sales volume has multiplied sixfold and the staff has tripled since Craffey bought Lee’s in 2017, after the death of Lee Gardner, who founded the business in 1984.
Over the past year, the pandemic has only heightened interest in RVing, camping and other socially distanced outdoor activities. Craffey said he sold about 1,000 vehicles last year, including 10 RVs to traveling nurses who tour the country. There’s also growing demand from customers in other occupations.
“We get professional couples who want to go on the road now and do all their work there,” said Craffey.
In addition to Lee’s, Craffey owns three Hannaford supermarkets, including one in Gray. He’s also owned a strip mall. In 2003, he bought Moose Landing Marina in Naples, and sold it 10 years later. “I guess you could say my specialty is small business,” Craffey said.
Camping World, at an opposite extreme, reported sales of $4.9 billion in 2019 and has a market capitalization of $3.2 billion. The company, founded in 1966, went public five years ago in a $251 million offering.
Courtesy / Camping World
A view of one of Camping World's 170-plus locations.
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Anonymous
February 24, 2021
That's unfortunate!
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