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DATE

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer and President — Matthew Wagner
  • Chief Financial Officer — Thomas Kirn
  • Chief Administrative and Legal Officer — Lindsey Christen
  • Senior Vice President and Investor Relations — Brett Andress

TAKEAWAYS

  • Revenue -- $1.35 billion for the quarter, with new and used unit declines partially offset by a 4% increase in new vehicle average selling prices.
  • SG&A Reduction -- Down by more than $29 million, or 7.5%, with a 135 basis point improvement in SG&A as a percentage of gross profit.
  • Inventory Discipline -- Same-store RV unit inventory declined over 10% year over year, and management purchased over 20% fewer units year-to-date.
  • New Model Year Inventory -- 2025 model year represented roughly 8% of new inventory, down over 50% in units compared to the prior year.
  • Gross Margins -- New vehicle gross margin declined 148 basis points to 12.2%, and used vehicle gross margin declined 91 basis points to 17.7%, both expected to improve in the back half of the year.
  • Adjusted EBITDA -- $28 million, compared to $31.2 million in the prior-year quarter, with SG&A reduction mitigating most of the gross profit decline.
  • Leverage Ratio -- Net debt leverage improved to 5.6x from 8.1x year over year.
  • Debt Repayment -- $56 million of debt paid down during the quarter.
  • Cash Position -- Cash balance stood at $200 million at quarter-end.
  • Cost Rationalization -- $19 million in compensation savings and consolidation of 13 store locations realized in reported quarter; additional $10 million of annualized cost actions executed year-to-date, totaling nearly $35 million in annualized cost savings.
  • Same-Store Used Sales -- Decreased 2.6%, attributed to January-February weather disruptions; both new and used unit trends turned slightly positive in April.
  • Good Sam Segment -- Continued top line growth with margins roughly flat year over year; ERP overhaul expected to complete in the second quarter.
  • AI Initiatives -- Cost takeout opportunities are expected, mainly within IT spend, including a new in-house CRM solution already driving positive results in extended service plans.
  • Industry Outlook Update -- Management projects new RV retail units for 2026 at the lower end of 325,000 to 350,000, and used RV units at the midpoint of 715,000 to 750,000.
  • Adjusted EBITDA Full-Year Guidance -- 2026 range reiterated at $275 million to $325 million.

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RISKS

  • New and used unit sales both declined, with management noting that "vehicle gross margins were under pressure" and the margin trend is expected to remain challenging through the second quarter before improving.
  • CEO Wagner said weather disruptions "shut down in excess of 60 of our stores for at least a day between January and February," contributing to missed unit sales and volatility in results.
  • Margins on parts, service, and other work may be constrained as focus remains on reconditioning used inventory over higher-margin external service business; management acknowledges improvement is needed to grow external service work.

SUMMARY

Management cited a disciplined focus on cost control and inventory optimization, which contributed to improvements in SG&A efficiency, reductions in leverage, and a strengthened balance sheet despite challenging market conditions. CEO Wagner described the company's exclusive brand and inventory strategy as the primary drivers behind outperforming the broader new RV sales market and gaining share, particularly in the Fifth Wheel segment, as corroborated by SSI data through February. The Good Sam business line continued top line growth and is progressing toward an ERP upgrade, which the company believes will enable wider marketplace participation and further margin stabilization. Capital deployment remained conservative, centering on debt repayment, CapEx restraint, and selective M&A, while operational investments in AI infrastructure and IT rationalization began to deliver measurable cost and productivity benefits.

  • Management reported working closely with manufacturing partners to limit model year price increases, with early 2027 motorized units reflecting only a 1%-2% rise and anticipated 1%-3% range for towables.
  • Used RV average selling prices were said to be stabilizing, with management reaffirming a target of approximately $31,500 as industry trends recover.
  • Company noted ongoing development with Costco partnership, stating rollout pace was deliberately slowed to improve customer experience and optimize listing strategies, with initial roadshow scheduled for May.
  • Consumer credit quality and lender approval rates remained stable, with SVP Andress observing, "we have actually seen rates start to drift down at a rather increasing rate actually over the last couple of weeks."
  • Store footprint changes included one recent small acquisition and strategic focus on brand acquisitions without necessarily increasing fixed costs, underscoring continued opportunism and discipline in expansion.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • SSI (Statistical Surveys Inc.): An independent source for US RV industry retail registration data, used for benchmarking market share and unit trends.
  • F&I (Finance and Insurance): The segment of vehicle retail operations responsible for arranging financing and selling ancillary products such as extended warranties, insurance, and service contracts.
  • ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): Business management software used for integrating core business processes across an organization on a unified platform.
  • ASP (Average Selling Price): The average price at which products, such as RV units, are sold over a specified period.
  • SG&A (Selling, General, and Administrative): The costs associated with selling products and managing day-to-day business operations, excluding costs directly tied to product manufacturing.

Full Conference Call 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. [Operator Instructions] Joining on the call today are Matthew Wagner, Chief Executive Officer and President; Tom Kirn, Chief Financial Officer; Lindsey Christen, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer; Brett Andress, Senior Vice President and Investor Relations. I will now turn the conference call over to Lindsey Christen, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer. Please go ahead.

Lindsey Christen: 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 10-K, 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 statements 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 Wagner: 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 on our last call. These results are a 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% and 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 3 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're 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 6 of the last 8 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 into 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 moved 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 reflects a fundamentally lower cost basis, not onetime 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 its 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 4 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.

Thomas Kirn: 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 compares 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 5.6x compared to 8.1x 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 Wagner: Thanks, Tom. I'll close with this. This is 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 costs, and we strengthened our balance sheet. Operator, we're now ready to take your questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from Bret Jordan from Jefferies.

Patrick Buckley: This is Patrick Buckley on for Bret. On the F&I per unit, it looks like a pretty healthy step up. Can you talk a bit more about the dynamics there and what drove that and maybe the outlook moving forward?

Matt Wagner: Yes, it has been a really fascinating dynamic where historically speaking, when our average sales price goes up, that F&I penetration typically goes down a little bit. And oftentimes, it's an immaterial amount, maybe 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 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 a willingness not only with more money that they're coming to the finance office, but also to protect their asset and becoming a part of our whole Good Sam affinity network.

Patrick Buckley: Got it. That's helpful. And then on the recent used value trends, a bit of a decrease in ASPs. I guess is there anything notable driving that? And a bit of a follow-up there. We have seen some headlines on negative equity value in light vehicles and cars. Are you seeing any trends like that in your customers?

Matt Wagner: We've spoken extensively over our last few earnings calls about just the negative equity position that a lot of consumers have found themselves in coming out of that pandemic period in particular. We're not seeing that negative equity trend being amplified similar to what I saw in that same article you probably read within the automotive industry. Rather, we're seeing more of a corrective self-healing environment in this industry, where we've been in this environment for the last going on 5 years now, where you've seen declining demand on the new RV sales side, which I believe is a high corollary to what that negative equity position has been historically.

So when I think of just that ASP coming down, it was kind of an immaterial amount. And we're keeping a watchful eye on that. But I wouldn't put too much stock in Q1, which I would oftentimes regard as a very volatile quarter, where we know about 20% of our volume in terms of new and used unit sales oftentimes comes out of Q1. Really, it's in the meat of the selling season where I think you can more effectively assess what the trends are going to be. And we're seeing it in Q2, Q3, there is a stabilization here compared to what we had projected for the year.

We believe that we're still on pace for our used ASPs to land in that $31,500 range, give or take. And we believe that there should be stabilization here as we look into out years.

Operator: And your next question comes from James Hardiman from Citigroup.

James Hardiman: Congrats on a strong quarter given a lot of moving pieces, a lot of curveballs thrown at you guys. And I guess maybe along those lines, obviously, rough weather to start the year. And then just as the weather seems to be getting a little bit better, war started in the Middle East. So maybe walk us through some of what you saw over the course of the quarter and beyond to help us discern the weather impact from the Middle East impact and how you're thinking about that going forward? Were it not for the Middle East situation, do you think you'd be raising today? Just trying to understand sort of the moving parts there.

Matt Wagner: James, thanks for the question. This really was quite a textured quarter, and I wish it was a lot smoother and a lot clear to be able to explain. But I can tell you, we entered the year firing on all cylinders. We had a great show season. And actually, our success at show seasons prevailed throughout the entirety of the quarter, which really manifested itself in, I believe, our outperformance on the new RV sales side, regardless of whatever the backdrop was that we were confronted with.

But you are correct that when we had to shut down in excess of 60 of our stores for at least a day between January and February, that was clearly the biggest disruption that we saw. In our last earnings call, we spoke about we think that we missed out on about 1,500 unit sales. And coincidence or not, we were actually off on same-store unit sales about 1,700 units. So perhaps that was the biggest driving factor. And as we transition into March, in particular, that was also kind of a choppy month, where we had a couple of weeks stretch where we did very well in particular.

And then we had a couple of week stretch where we were just kind of scratching our head and so why were we off a little bit? So either way, though, we saw a lot more stabilization as we started to exit March and enter into April, where things started to come into clear focus and picture as to what we believe we could experience throughout the balance of Q2 in particular. And we took a lot of thoughts in the fact that we ended March strong. We're now trending throughout April.

And obviously, today, we're closing a lot of deals, and we're looking to wrap up the month of April, but we are trending to be positive on a same-store basis, new and used combined. Used obviously trending up high single digits year-over-year on a same-store basis, new about flat to slightly down, which we believe is still an outperformance of what we're seeing. More to come here, though, as this year progresses. But to start the year, we believe that we weathered a very volatile environment exceedingly well.

James Hardiman: That's really helpful. And then the headline here is obviously that you guys are reiterating the $275 million to $325 million. Obviously, it's never quite that easy, but nothing changed. I think you guys called out new RV from an industry perspective, maybe at the lower end of the previous range, used in line. But maybe within the context of the full year EBITDA guidance, any other puts and takes we should be thinking about, whether it's ASPs or margin within that broader context?

Matt Wagner: I think the numbers that we previously provided for our full year outlook of ASPs and margin in particular, really hold true still, where we did have a bit of an outperformance even based upon our expectation of some margin on the used side. And that's largely attributable to the fact, as I said previously, that Q1 is a volatile quarter, and it's not necessarily going to be the principal driver of the overall annualized results. But as we think through the balance of the year, we know that we can control much more of our SG&A structure.

And that's where you saw as evidenced by our Q1 results that we were very focused on ensuring that we are optimizing every component of this business, and we're going to remain focused on all of the SG&A opportunities that still exist out there. We're providing updates as we complete different objectives as opposed to projecting what we think we will get done. And we'll continue to over the ensuing quarters ensure that we're hitting our goals in this guidance range with the things that we can control.

Operator: And your next question comes from Joe Altobello from Raymond James.

Joseph Altobello: A few questions on the inventory initiatives. You've talked about taking turns on new and used up by roughly, I think, half a turn or so by the end of this year. Is that still your target? Is the bulk of that going to be done by the end of the second quarter ahead of the model year changeover? Or do you think some of that spills over into the second half? And is the hit on that EBITDA still around $35 million?

Matt Wagner: We believe that you should be looking at those turnover goals on an annualized basis, in particular, because how we calculate that for purposes of just the markets in particular, is looking at a quarterly snapshot of any inventory balances as compared to a trailing 12-month total COGS amount attributable to that inventory. So as such, the annualized turnover number takes a little bit of time to actually percolate throughout the entire system. So we will make very good progress, we believe, throughout the balance of Q2 in terms of rationalization of inventory that we'd like to continue to push through.

And that's going to be aged multiyear new 2025 units, which, by the way, we reduced those 50% from the last time we even spoke with you. Never mind when you look at year-over-year. So we've made really good progress on the new side of derisking that in particular. On the used side, just as well, we didn't quite sell as much volume as we wanted to in Q1. So we know in Q2, this is our greatest opportunity where demand just seasonally adjusts and seasonally becomes a bigger opportunity for us to continue to push assets through the system.

We would anticipate that our Q2 ending inventory balance on used will actually probably be close to down if we had to project out. And as we look through the balance of the year, that's where we're being very diligent about replenishment as well as ensuring that we have this nice balance of good fresh product coming in with margin augmentation while continue to push out some assets that are a little bit aged at this moment. So when we think of these actual annualized turnover goals, I look more so over the total balance of the year as opposed to trying to break it down quarter-by-quarter.

Joseph Altobello: Okay. So it will be gradual. Is that kind of what you're saying? Okay. And then the second question on the Costco partnership. Curious how that's going and maybe what we could see from an EBITDA contribution. So I believe that's not in your guidance at this point.

Matt Wagner: It's not. And admittedly, this is a partnership that both parties want to ensure it's executed flawlessly. So we've started out a little bit slower in that relationship than we would have preferred. We sprung it up really fast, and we've been working diligently with the Costco auto buying program to ensure that we just have the best experience for these Costco consumers. So while we were just a little bit unhappy with how certain lead flows were going, the general pricing logic, we actually took a little bit of a pause for a moment. And we've been working with them over the last 6 weeks now to actually recreate the entire online product listings pages, product detail pages.

We came up with a whole new pricing algorithm. So we'll start to see the fruits of that labor, we believe, beginning in May, when that's when we'll have our first warehouse roadshow begin. And this actually coalesces very nicely with seasonally the opportunities that we see. May oftentimes is going to be the largest unit volume month for the industry and for us as a company. And June oftentimes represents the highest revenue month as a company and as an industry. So this will be the best opportunity for us to have gone through this exercise, ensure that we are flawlessly executing this and really more to come here.

We're hopeful over the next 3 months when we speak with you that we'll have really good feedback to provide back.

Operator: And your next question comes from Tristan Thomas-Martin from BMO Capital Markets.

Tristan Thomas-Martin: So early in the year, we were hearing quite a bit about kind of like the pre-COVID cohort coming back and trading in. So I'm curious if you could maybe -- one, is that true? Can you quantify it? And maybe how did that trend over the course of the quarter?

Matt Wagner: In the early phase of this year, Tristan, we've not yet seen a material increase in trade-in percentages yet. We have recognized though that those consumers that had bought in that 2018 to 2021 time period are starting to come back in. And that's just evidenced by us looking at the general average model year of assets that are coming back into inventory right now. So we do believe that there has been some self-healing of these consumers that were confronted with negative equity.

But as we said in the last call, we would anticipate by the end of this year to be in the early innings of what we think will be a trade-in cycle that will continue to materialize with greater frequency and really magnitude over the ensuing 3 to 5 years, where at that point, beginning in '27, '28, the industry should start to see the benefit of a double stack effect.

And what that means is, those consumers that were buying in 2020, '21, '22 that have just been sitting on the sidelines here for a little bit longer than we historically had anticipated, but they'll also be augmented by those same consumers that benefited from the deflation that existed in the RV industry in 2024. So in other words, you'll have a 2020 and the '21 cohort as well as the '24 cohort, all coming back into the marketplace all around the same time period. And this is now where we believe it's more of a theoretical debate of the industry has never quite seen this before.

So how big is that order of magnitude, don't quite know yet, but we'll continue to provide you more insights as we have them readily available.

Tristan Thomas-Martin: Okay. Awesome. And then just given all the talk around kind of raw material inflation, how are you thinking about model year '27 pricing, both like-for-like and then kind of your mix?

Matt Wagner: So we, obviously, in 2026, have seen roughly a 5% to 7% increase compared to model year '25. We've been working diligently with our manufacturing partners to ensure that we are focused on affordability. That has been a problem that has plagued this industry off and on over the last 5 years. We've already started to receive some model year 2027 motorized units, and we're pleased to report as of this moment, we're only seeing about a 1% to 2% price increase, which we believe is roughly in line with what consumers can handle based upon inflation. And we all know, ideally, these prices be relatively stabilized as opposed to seeing any sort of inflation or deflation.

Towables are starting to -- or will be hitting lock over the next, I'd say, 1.5 months to 2 months here. So we'll have a clearer view as to what those price increases could or will be. Based upon conversations, they could be anywhere from 1% to 3%. We're hopeful that there'll be different opportunities for us to work with our manufacturing partners and supplier partners just to ensure that we are keeping as many consumers in this industry and actually attracting that many more customers back into this industry.

Operator: Your next question comes from Scott Stember from ROTH Capital Markets.

Scott Stember: Can we talk about the products and parts and service side? I know the narrative over the last year, 1.5 years has been prioritizing used reconditioning work over some of the more like warranty and customer pay work just because of what's available from a service day perspective. Is there any change to that narrative going forward, particularly as the wear and tear cycle on these multiple millions of RVs that have been sold since the pandemic starts to kick in over the next year?

Matt Wagner: So the narrative still remains relatively the same, given that our focus on used, in particular, is going to drive a lot of the service needs. And as you know, Scott, when we actually recondition that asset, that service revenue gross profit actually moves to that used asset in so much as you're actually improving the value of that asset. So that has worked against us in terms of looking at the parts, service and other category. But I can tell you in terms of our actual parts component of that segment, we've seen a nice improvement in customers coming back in and looking for those replacement components.

But what we need to do is do a better job as a company is continue to ensure that those customers are not only buying that part from us, but they're also leveraging our service capacity. And we need to get a little bit better here as we move through the balance of this year, but really with a focus on the back half of this year into next year to ensure that we're growing more external service work more effectively. This entire industry has had a capacity issue, inefficient supply chain issue.

And we believe we've been working on a lot of creative methodologies and tools to ensure that we do a much better job in the ensuing quarters, but more importantly, years.

Scott Stember: Got it. And then last question on the balance sheet, nice improvement on the leverage ratio. It looks like cash flow in the first quarter was up nicely over last year. Can you give us some expectations where you would expect maybe free cash flow to find its way by the end of the year as well as the leverage ratio?

Thomas Kirn: Sure, Scott. As we think about -- I mean, free cash flow for our company, I mean, if you take our guidance range and you back out our term loan interest and our real estate interest, maybe $10 million to $15 million of cash taxes. Our goal this year in terms of net CapEx is to be south of $100 million for the year when you back out sale leasebacks that we're executing on projects that were previously completed. So that's kind of how we're thinking about managing and tightening the CapEx line as we move through the balance of the year.

Operator: And your next question comes from Andrew Didora from Bank of America.

Andrew Didora: Matt, I just kind of wanted to dig in maybe a little bit more on SG&A. You clearly got off on the right foot here to start the year. The way we look at it, it has been running just over $1.5 billion for each of the past 5 years or so, I guess, when we exclude stock comp. Do you think you can flex below that? Or can you maybe give us a little bit more insight into how you think about the opportunity within that line item?

Matt Wagner: I'm not going to give a specific range yet. And I'd rather we continue down the path that we're on right now, where we are very focused on implementing a variety of different processes, tools and rationalization methods to ensure that we maintain this pace that we're on today and continue to provide feedback. I could tell you as a proof point, over the last few months, we've been heavily invested in researching all different opportunities that exist with AI. We've set up a lot of different teams separately to figure out different ways to optimize different SaaS environments or software environments and also to eliminate unnecessary consulting contracts that exist out there.

As just one proof point, you heard in my prepared remarks that we spoke about how we created our own bespoke CRM for just one specific business line of just our extended service plan business. And using that as just one proof point in particular, we had originally budgeted for this year $800,000 to stand up that specific environment, plus we are anticipating ongoing maintenance associated with that environment of roughly $400,000 to $500,000 a year.

If we were to break that down, that would oftentimes be just a normal environment that we had a third-party tech company come in, help us out with, and every business can speak about the fact that once you bring in this environment, you'll have ongoing support and maintenance costs associated with it. We were able to stand up that entire environment with 3 individuals in particular, taking the product and technical lead, which is really just sweat equity.

We were able to then turn it over to the rest of our IT organization to ensure that we are fully in compliance, fully safe and secure, and we're able to stand up our infrastructure team to actually execute all of that in 26 days. And we believe that on an ongoing basis, it will require the time of maybe 1/4 of the time of one FTE to maintain that environment. And then it just naturally gets inbuilt in our overall infrastructure and security environment as well.

So when you think of just that as one specific proof point that we needed to prove to ourselves that we could start to scale up this environment faster and faster, we see a lot of opportunity, specifically within the IT spend.

Andrew Didora: Got it. That's some helpful color. And maybe just for my second question, I was going to ask the CapEx question this year, but I guess kind of how should we think about that maybe over the next 3 years once you exclude any SLBs that you do? And I guess on that note, how can you improve maybe your EBITDA to free cash flow conversion over time?

Matt Wagner: I think, as we look forward, I mean, for this year, obviously, I mentioned south of $100 million is the goal for this year. There are some onetime projects in there or what we believe are onetime projects in there for some new builds and some larger construction items. We haven't typically published a maintenance CapEx range in the past, but I think there is room in there to get that closer to the $75 million range from a maintenance perspective.

And then as we continue to grow our footprint or see other opportunities to move facilities or if we have needs on the real estate side to move facilities, that's where you see us historically have to flex and maybe purchase some real estate. And then in a subsequent year, sell that real estate to a REIT as we kind of move in and out of facilities. So that's where historically, you've seen the number move a little bit year-to-year, and that may be the case going forward. So I don't want to peg it to an exact number, but that's sort of the range for maintenance and also what we're looking at for this year as a goal.

Operator: And your next question comes from Noah Zatzkin from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Noah Zatzkin: I guess just on the kind of March and April commentary, it would appear that your comments kind of point to meaningful share gains versus at least what we're hearing from others out there in terms of how the industry kind of trended in March and April. So I guess, first, is your sense that, that's the right way to think about it? And if it is, what do you think has kind of led to the share gain acceleration?

Matt Wagner: No, as you know, by the way, we'll have some more Stat Survey Information over the next week that will provide us insights into March's retail activity. And that's where we largely rely upon that as the independent third party to provide us actual insights based other than just speculative behavior within the industry or even us speculating on it. But we do believe, based upon January and February's results that we have had a significant outperformance. And I believe that's attributable to our replenishment and our inventory strategy associated with our exclusive brands.

And even as we look at our specific exclusive travel trailer brands in the month of April, we're trending to be up in excess of 20% on just our exclusive travel trailer brands year-over-year, which was a relatively difficult comp for that same lineup of brands. So when I juxtapose that against traditionally OEM brands that exist out there, we're not performing quite as well with those OEM brands. So I think of how creative our team has been of not only continuing to work with manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that we have very creative floor plans, but most importantly, we're hitting the affordability curve of consumers in this industry, and we're attracting greater consumers into the industry.

We believe we've been best-in-class at least our exclusive brand strategy, especially over the last 2 to 3 years.

Noah Zatzkin: And maybe just one on the industry. Any sense for kind of industry inventory levels right now? Anything in terms of what you're seeing on promo from others? Just kind of a state of what you're seeing out there would be helpful.

Matt Wagner: I wish we had better insights into what the actual rolling stock of inventory was in the entire industry. It's almost impossible for us to calculate. We've tried in a variety of different ways. But given the very nature that there are wholesalers that exist in the industry, and there's a lot of rental units that are sold, sometimes [ FEMA ] has a contract with different dealers and those don't necessarily get registered as cleanly. It has been really difficult for us to zero-in on what actual rolling stock inventory is.

But based upon just us working with different competitors, knowing different competitors, it does appear that there is quite a promotional environment that exists out there, which is why we try to be pragmatic about our approach to inventory and to pricing for the year and be very realistic about what the margin profile could look like for the balance of the year.

Operator: And your last question comes from Alice Wycklendt from Baird.

Alice Wycklendt: Matt, I think you touched on it a little bit in your comments on F&I with kind of the consumer down payments. But maybe I wanted to step back big picture and hear maybe what you're seeing in the credit environment more broadly from a consumer financing perspective.

Thomas Kirn: I'll handle a portion of the question, and then I'll turn it to Brett Andress as well to speak more intelligently about our relationship with the lenders that we have. But as of right now, we've not seen any sort of different behaviors in terms of like credit profile or approval rates. We have been working very effectively with our lenders to ensure that we're doing our best to maintain current rate, if not driving them down. But in terms of the overall creditworthiness of our customers, we feel really good with what we're seeing right now.

Brett Andress: Yes, Alice, I would say from a consumer lending pricing standpoint over the last couple of months, we have actually seen rates start to drift down at a rather increasing rate actually over the last couple of weeks. So with all the rate vol out there, I think that has been encouraging to us as we go into the season. Hopefully, some of that vol starts to probably ease itself, and we can find some additional cuts as we go through the season, but it has been more favorable over the last couple of weeks from a pricing standpoint.

Alice Wycklendt: Great. That's helpful. And then maybe just a little bit of housekeeping question. I mean your location is down 10 year-over-year, but up, I think, 3 sequentially. How should we think about your plans for the number of locations over the next 3 quarters or so?

Matt Wagner: Actually, last month, we did close on an acquisition, tiny little M&A in Indiana, which fit through the very disciplined framework that we spoke about on the last call, where we were able to acquire the store for a little goodwill. It's in a very favorable market with good brands where we have low market share. And we were fortunate in so much of being able to pick this up and just fill out our map.

We'll continue to be diligent about looking at different M&A opportunities, but we also want to be very disciplined about how we're approaching them as opposed to we could, in many situations, just buy brands off of dealerships that want to get out of the industry or just want to unwind whatever they're working on within their localized market. And this is frequently as we get opportunities to buy a dealership, we're able to turn that back around then and say, do we really want to acquire the fixed costs associated with that dealership? Or do we really just want the brands and consolidate the marketplace.

And we've taken that latter position in quite a few environments where we were able to work with, I believe, 3 dealerships now year-to-date. We're able to acquire either all the brands or some of the brands off their lot. So what we're going to end up with for the year, tough to say. We're going to be opportunistic and continue to look through the framework of does it make sense for us from a goodwill perspective? It's going to be highly accretive. Are we able to get in there for a low rent factor if we could acquire the real estate for a reduced amount? And do we have low market share there.

Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Matthew Wagner, you may proceed.

Matt Wagner: Thank you for everyone's time this morning. We're quite pleased with our results in Q1. We still know we have much more work to do, and we look forward to speaking with you all again in the next 3 months.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you very much for your participation, and you may now disconnect. Have a great day.