On Thursday, Camping World Holdings (NYSE:CWH) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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Summary
Camping World Holdings reported a first-quarter revenue of $1.35 billion, with declines in new and used unit sales partially offset by a 4% increase in new vehicle average selling prices.
The company reduced SG&A expenses by more than $29 million, reflecting a significant improvement in operating efficiency, which included a $19 million reduction in compensation.
Camping World Holdings reiterated its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $275 million to $325 million, citing strong operational performance and strategic initiatives in inventory management and exclusive brand strategies.
The company reported a $28 million adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter, slightly down from the previous year, but with improved cash flows and a reduction in net debt leverage ratio from 8.1 times to 5.6 times.
Management highlighted strategic focus on AI initiatives for cost savings and efficiency improvements, and progress in its Good Sam ERP overhaul expected to drive future growth.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning and welcome to the Camping World Holdings conference call to discuss financial Results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode and later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. Please be advised that this call is being recorded and the reproduction of the call in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorization from the company. Joining on the call today are Matthew Wagner, Chief Executive Officer and President Tom Kern,, Chief Financial Officer Lindsey Kristen,, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer Brett Andreas,, Senior Vice President in Investor Relations. I will now turn the conference call over to Lindsey Kristen,, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer. Please go ahead.
Lindsey Kristen (Chief Administrative and Legal Officer)
Thank you and good morning everyone. A press release covering the company’s first quarter ended March 31, 2026 financial results was issued yesterday afternoon and a copy of that press release can be found in the Investor Relations section on the Company’s website. Management’s remarks on this call may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. These remarks may include statements regarding our business plans and goals, macroeconomic and industry trends, customer trends, inventory strategy, future growth of operations and market share, capital allocation, and future financial results and position. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the Risk Factors section in our Form 10K, our Form 10-Qs and other reports on file with the SEC. Any forward looking statements represent our views only as of today and we undertake no obligation to update them. Please also note that we will be referring to certain non GAAP financial measures on today’s call, such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Earnings per Share diluted, which we believe may be important to investors to assess our operating performance. Reconciliations of these non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and on our website. All comparisons of our 2026 first quarter results are made against the 2025 first quarter results unless otherwise noted. I’ll now turn the call over to
Matt
Matt Good morning everyone and thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings call. I’m pleased to report that despite a challenging RV industry backdrop, we delivered a first quarter that demonstrates the discipline and operating leverage we discussed in our last call. These results are validation of the steps we believe will grow Adjusted EBITDA and generate strong free cash flow for the full year. Market conditions came in softer than expected, but the underlying quality of this quarter is what I want you to take away from this call. On a year over year basis, we reduced SG&A by more than $29 million or 7.5%. Improved our SG&A as a percentage of gross profit by 135 basis points. This is the transformation showing up in the numbers on this call. We’ll walk through the three priorities I laid out to start the year. Growing new and used unit share, driving SG&A efficiency and accelerating. Good Sam. Then I’ll close with our outlook for the year. Our new unit sales outpaced the industry According to SSI. New unit retail sales through February were tracking down in excess of 15%. We believe we outperformed the broader new RV sales market in every major category, driven largely by our exclusive brand strategy. Within the new fifth wheel segment, we were up nearly 10% year to date, driven by the introduction of private label products that hit compelling price points with unique features. On the used side, SSI data shows that the used RV industry has grown in six of the last eight months through February, reinforcing our strategic focus on this end market. While we saw positive signs of growth within certain categories, our same store used sales were down 2.6% in the quarter. We attribute the decline to January and February weather disruptions that limited our ability to aggressively move assets. More importantly, the year over year trajectory of our new and used volume improved as we move through March with new and used units in April trending to end the month slightly positive year over year. Moving to inventory and SG&A. Our message has been simple, disciplined execution drives profitability and our metrics at the end of April reflect that focus. As of today, our total same store RV unit inventory is down over 10% year over year and we have purchased over 20% less units year to date year over year. Even on fewer units in inventory. Our daily sales velocity for the month of April is positive versus last year. Our new model year 2025 inventory now sits at roughly 8% of total new inventory, down over 50% in units versus the same time last year on SG&A. I’m very pleased with our progress. The 135 basis point improvement in SG&A to gross profit and the $29 million reduction reflect a fundamentally lower cost basis, not one time savings. This includes $19 million of compensation reduction in the quarter and the consolidation of 13 store locations over the last year that sharpened the efficiency of our footprint on top of $29 million SG&A reduction fully realized in the quarter. We also executed about $10 million of additional annualized cost rationalization, bringing our year to date total to nearly $35 million of annualized cost savings. Looking ahead, we see the potential for significant cost takeout opportunities from the AI initiatives we’re rolling out across the enterprise with the bulk of that opportunity sitting within our IT spend. We expect these initiatives to drive material hard dollar savings and improvements in dealership productivity and the customer experience. Longer term, we believe we are building a leaner, stronger company with greater operating leverage and we expect that to translate into enhanced earnings and free cash flow. Good Sam. also made great progress in the quarter, continuing at top line growth pace while stabilizing margins to roughly flat year over year. We expect to complete our Good Sam. ERP overhaul in the second quarter which will allow us to accelerate entry into adjacent marketplaces and using AI. We have developed and deployed a custom in house CRM solution specifically for our extended service plan business and it’s already showing early signs of productivity conversion and revenue uplift. Good Sam remains a cornerstone of our long term growth and the early margin stabilization we are seeing reinforces our conviction in the opportunity ahead. Less than four months into this year, we believe the new RV industry is likely tracking towards the lower end of our 2026 retail outlook calling for 325,000 to 350,000 units, while the used RV industry is likely playing out towards the midpoint of our range which is between 715,000 to 750,000 units. We believe that the momentum we have built on new market share, on inventory, on SG&A and on Good Sam keeps us on track to grow Adjusted EBITDA year over year. Today we are reiterating our full year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA guidance range of 275 million to $325 million. With that, I will turn the call over to Tom to walk you through our financial results in more detail.
Tom
Thanks Matt. For the first quarter we recorded revenue of $1.35 billion.. New and used unit declines were partially offset by a richer mix with new vehicle average selling prices up approximately 4% year over year. On the new side specifically, we believe our unit volumes outpaced the industry in the quarter. As expected, vehicle gross margins were under pressure in the first quarter as we moved through assets in certain aging buckets. New vehicle gross margin declined 148 basis points to 12.2% and used vehicle gross margin declined 91 basis points to 17.7%. We expect this gross margin trend to continue through the second quarter, consistent with our commentary on last quarter’s call. Before beginning to improve in the back half of 2026 as we expect velocity and aging improvements to take hold. New ASPs should also continue to increase at a similar rate year over year as we progress through the second quarter. Within Good Sam, we were pleased by the sequential improvement in Gross margin from Q4, which is consistent with our expectations to yield returns on the significant operational investments we’ve made over the past 18 months. We believe Good Sam margins should show year over year improvements through the balance of the year. Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $28 million compared to 31.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. The decline in gross profit was largely mitigated by the $29 million SG&A reduction. We ended the quarter with $200 million of cash on the balance sheet and our net debt leverage ratio improved to 5.6 times compared to 8.1 times at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Our cash flows from operating and investing activities improved markedly year over year as we remain focused on our inventory turn goals and capex restraint. We also paid down $56 million of debt in the quarter. Our capital deployment framework continues to focus on strengthening the balance sheet while retaining growth capital within the business. With that, I will turn it back to Matt.
Matt
Thanks Tom. I’ll close with this. This was my first full quarter as CEO since stepping into the role at the top of the year, and while we’re still in the early innings of the plan we laid out on last quarter’s call, I am proud of what our team has accomplished so far. We took share, we pulled down cost, and we strengthened our balance sheet. Operator, we’re now ready to take your questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We’ll now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one. On your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from Brett Jordan from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Tasher Buckley
Hey good morning guys. This is Tasher Buckley on for Brett. Thanks for taking our questions. Certainly. I’m the F&I per unit. It looked like a pretty healthy step up. Could you talk a bit more about the dynamics there and what drove that and maybe the outlook more Yeah, it’s been a really fascinating dynamic where historically speaking, when our average sale price goes up that F&I penetration typically goes down a little bit and oftentimes it’s an immaterial amount, maybe you know, 25 to 50 basis points. But we have seen some interesting dynamics recently within the F&I segment. Specifically, we’ve been tracking the amount of down payment that consumers are coming into the finance office with, and therefore they also are looking to add on a number of different finance products in the back end. More specifically, we’ve recognized a pattern that those consumers that are buying more expensively priced assets, oftentimes in excess of $50,000 average sale price, are actually coming down with a higher down payment than we’ve seen historically. Whereas those consumers that are buying lower priced assets oftentimes under say, $25,000, they’re actually coming down, coming to the finance office with a little bit lower down payment amount. In either cohort though, we’re still seeing a higher product attachment. That is all the Good Sam Affinity products that we offer, be it roadside assistance, extended service plans, tire wheel protection, et cetera. So largely our inventory strategy has been derived from these trends that we’ve been seeing not only over the last few months, but even leading into this year, that there’s clearly this K-shaped economy that’s forming here. And those customers that are oftentimes buying those higher average sale price assets do have …
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