Tampa Tribune Article - Crowning Customers' Long Drive

March 4, 2004

By JO-ANN JOHNSTON

SEFFNER - When Bob and Lynne Kumza finally bought the 40-foot motor coach of their dreams last year, they traveled all the way from Pittsburgh to make their purchase from Lazydays® RV SuperCenter®.

This week, they were back at the I-4 dealership just east of Tampa for their first warranty maintenance on their $250,000 Country Coach recreational vehicle, and they reported the chore was actually fun.

``You can't lose weight here at the CrownClub®,'' said Lynne Kumza, who has been balancing complimentary meals of prime rib and desserts with daily swims at the resort's pool and walks with the couple's toy poodle, Abby.

The trip even has been enjoyable for her husband, Bob, an engineer, who is so concerned with workmanship that he visited RV factories and dealers and researched vehicles for five years before taking the big plunge.

CrownClub®, the latest innovation from the country's biggest single-site RV dealer, threw a coming-out party this week for the Kumzas and hundreds more RV enthusiasts.

Membership is a special perquisite for customers who buy the most expensive, diesel-powered motor coaches on the market, fully equipped with home appliances and ranging in price from $250,000 to more than $1 million.

The idea is that if customers spend that kind of money at Lazydays, the dealership will make their service visits, usually three or four days, as homey as possible. CrownClub® amenities include a price break on an RV site fee, two free meals a day in the swanky clubhouse, use of a library and lounge with Internet connections, access to a landscaped pool, and your own personal service adviser.

It's a first in the country, said Sherman Goldenberg, a vice president of Affinity Group Inc., which publishes the monthly RV Business. ``Don Wallace is an original thinker and an authentic leader in the industry,'' Goldenberg said.

Lazydays, founded in 1976, routinely provides RV sites, parties and meals to its wide range of customers. ``We sell everything from $5,000 to $1 million units,'' on its 150-acre site, Wallace said.

RVs generally have grown in popularity since the late 1990s among consumers who want family time and adventure combined, a trend that accelerated after the attacks of Sept. 11. Last year, industry sales totaled $12 billion.

The luxury segment, particularly, has been growing at Lazydays, accounting for about 40 percent of the company's revenue of $750 million last year, and 19 percent of the unit sales.

Most of the customers are in their 50s or older, but the Baby Boomers are coming into the ranks of buyers of luxury vehicles, too. For many of the buyers, the RV is their only home. Wallace decided in 1998 it was time to develop a higher level of service for those customers, a key to getting repeat sales and referrals.

Wallace judged that spending $2.3 million to build a CrownClub® would create a new buzz in the RV world, something a travel destination needs from time to time, he said.

``We're kind of like Disney World. Every couple of years you've got to build a new roller coaster,'' Wallace said. ``You've got to give the people something new to talk about when they get back home.''

It's not the ``opulent'' new surroundings that impress industry insiders as much as depth of the service levels from the 700 employees, said Goldenberg, the trade publishing executive, speaking from his office near South Bend, Ind.

For instance, it's the sales assistants driving around in golf carts giving customers bottles of water with with a Lazydays® label on it, said David J. Humphreys, president of the Reston, Va.-based Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. Or the classes he witnessed for new buyers on how to run their coaches' water heaters.

Such details all fit into the company's plan to reach its next big goal, Wallace said, which he wants to hit in 2005.

``We want to be the first RV dealer in America to do $1 billion from a single site,'' Wallace said.

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For More Information:

Stewart Schaffer, Chief Marketing Officer
Lazydays® RV Center
813.246.4999 ext. 4263
sschaffer@lazydays.com