Tampa’s Lazydays RV hits $1 billion in revenues for the first time

The pandemic’s recreational vehicle boom has led to an all-time benchmark for Tampa’s Lazydays Holdings.

The RV dealer announced last week it had surpassed $1 billion in annual revenues, far exceeding its previous annual record of $817.1 million set last year.

That in and of itself was a record for the 45-year-old company, which went public on the Nasdaq in 2018 after its acquisition by a New York holding company for $115 million. That year, it brought in $608.1 million in revenue.

“The last several years has brought rapid sales and earnings growth for Lazydays as we have expanded our footprint from four locations to 16,” Lazydays CEO Bill Murname said in a statement. “We want to thank and congratulate our customers, OEM partners, suppliers, shareholders and especially our Lazydays teammates for their support in achieving this exciting milestone.”

The company’s top line has been trending toward the $1 billion mark all year. At the end of Lazydays’ third quarter on Sept .30, it was sitting at $912 billion in revenue, up 47 percent from the same period in 2020.

Lazydays was founded in Thonotosassa in 1976 by the Wallace family, which started with $500, a mobile home and a couple of trailers. Over time the company grew to call itself the “world’s largest RV dealership,” even starring in a Travel Channel reality series, Big Time RV, in 2014.

The RV industry was already growing when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020. After that, demand increased even more as families looked for socially distant ways to travel, especially when they no longer felt comfortable flying, or were no longer bound to one place by the demands of work and schooling.

RV manufacturers shipped a record 57,971 vehicles to dealers in October, an increase of 22.5 percent from the same month a year prior, according to the RV Industry Association. The industry group reported last month that 72 million Americans are planning to take an RV trip in the next year, up from 61 million who were planning such a trip a year ago.