Newmar Unveils 2025 Lineup & Innovations at Annual Dealer Meeting

RV PRO spoke with Newmar’s Matt Ellinger, vice president of sales, on the company’s 2025 Dealer Meeting and how it continues to carry forth a legacy with “jaw-dropping” updates.

RV PRO: How was the turnout for this year’s Dealer Meeting?

Ellinger: We probably found that we had 95% attendance from dealers who were invited, which is usually what we average. With the exception of some Canadian dealers who couldn’t make it, and we do have some here. Most if not all our dealers came, which is a testament to the brand — what Newmar means to them. It’s a family event that that feels more like a reunion than it does a dealer meeting.

For [dealers], it’s like, ‘We’re going to strategically plan out our year, but we need to see the interior of a King Aire because we may want to use that floor on a Dutch Star.’ It’s for them to have at their fingertips, right? You can go from a King Aire to the Essex to the new Summit Aire, and kind of mix and match and build what they think will be one-of-one on their lot. They need this event to do that. It’s great for us, too, because we get feedback from them. And so far, the feedback’s been really good on our 26th model year.

RV PRO: What’s new that Newmar is most excited to spotlight?

Ellinger: [President] Casey Tubman highlighted 16 things that ‘we’re going to hang our hat on.’ That includes developing and offering a new wood color, which separates the two model years from each other. It could be as small as we added a patio on the back of our Canyon Star — so it’s not a new Canyon Star, but the new feature is something we never used to be able to position right. It was always just a ramp. So, to be a ramp and an active place where you can hang out and enjoy the outdoors, that was a big deal for us.

The revamped Super C line is something we are conveying to not only our dealers, but also to the public. We see a very long runway in the segment. We have a price point, a horsepower, a chassis and an interior for every person who wants to buy a Super C, from the smallest one at 34 feet to the biggest one, our Summit Aire, at 45 feet. That for us is really exciting. We want to capture that market.

The big one is unveiling a compact Class C that’s never been done at Newmar before — we’ve never built on this chassis. That’s a lot of hard work that a lot of people at Newmar have put in the last two years. We had it culminate to showing it off to dealers, and had those dealers share positive words of affirmation with us after they saw it.

Another of the unique things we instituted this year was an Artisan series, where a dealer or customer can sit down with their consultant to create and look through a catalog of different graphics, and they’re beautiful. These artisan graphics aren’t offered in our standard paints. The unique thing about that is, once you’ve picked one of those graphics, it comes out of the catalog never to be put back again. So, it is truly a special paint that only that customer will have. Our customers in that stratosphere — on London Aire, King Aire and Essex — really do feel like they want to be one-of-one, and now they can help create a masterpiece on the exterior of their coach. So, a dealer could bring it in as a stock and sell it that way — ‘Hey, we customized this paint and you’re going to get something that no one else will have.’ Or if someone’s putting in a retail order and they designed the interior, they can now design the exterior.

RV PRO: Tubman touched on tariffs and legislative changes. What other hurdles is Newmar facing moving forward?

Ellinger: What I’ve heard from dealers and the overarching message is, ‘We’ve worked through a lot of the [models] that were aging. We’re ready to get some new models on the lot.’ The problem we’re facing now is just a lot of uncertainty, and uncertainty isn’t the greatest for us in the RV industry. That’s what I’m hearing from the dealer network — ‘When this calms down, we kind of expect a pretty good summer. Or maybe it’s fall.’ So, we’ve had good retail — not great, but good, and we certainly haven’t lost market share. Matter of fact, even as [one] brand kind of stayed flat, we’ve gained market share. That’s a testament to Newmar and what we offer, the coaches we build and how we service those coaches. It’s consistency. From a dealership level, I think all they want to know when will the price go up, and how much? The problem is when you don’t have those answers, it’s kind of uncertain for everybody.

RV PRO: What has Newmar heard from dealers regarding what they’re looking for, or feedback on new products?

Ellinger: A good example is, we had some dealers stay on the sideline and not be 100% sure on the Super Cs. But once they came out and saw exactly what we offer and what they can offer from a lineup standpoint, they got on board. They were like, ‘We’re finally going to get in on this because you don’t have just two models, you have five models where we can have a customer walk up and even down the ladder.’ I think that was cool to see in the first two days of this show. We’ve had some people sign on for new products that they’ve never sold before, and specifically the Super Cs.

RV PRO: Are dealers hesitant to try new products if there’s not a lot of variety within that category?

Ellinger: There’s not a lot of data. I mean, they get used to selling this floorplan at this time, and it looks like this. It’s like clockwork. They know when it’s going to sell. So, when there’s not a lot of data behind a new floorplan or a new model, that’s something new to them in their geography and their market, and they tend to be a little hesitant. But with the excitement we’ve created and the interiors and the price points that we’re going to offer these at, I think that’s really pushed them over the edge, so they’re going to dive in with both feet.

That’s why it’s key for 95% of our dealers to be here, because it’s hard to sell that over a phone, on a brochure or in a video online. When they can get in that coach and sit in the Italian leather in the Freedom Aire or the Summit Aire, that’s a feel. And this is still a feel business. There’s a relationship in a feel, where they’re going to go, ‘OK, we can convey this to the customer.’

RV PRO: What does Newmar foresee for the marketplace this year and beyond?

Ellinger: The overall tone for us and a good goal for us as a company is for our dealers to continue making the margins that they should on Newmars. I think that’s where we’re going to be probably throughout the end of the year. I’m hoping I’m wrong and we see something that really spikes the interest of our consumer. Our consumer is probably a little more insulated than some other OEMs out there. We saw the luxury market grow last year. We saw the Essex have a really good year, London Aire had a great year, and for us, those are coaches that MSRP cresting a little over a million dollars. Those [lineups] having a good year is a testament again to the people who design them, people who build them and people who service our Newmars. I think that affluent customer said, ‘We’re going to vote with our pocketbook, and it’s going to be a Newmar.’

RV PRO: What other changes, opportunities or news should our readers know about?

Ellinger: Our executive team has had a lot of changes. We had a few people retire. Simone Silva [vice president of customer experience] joined us. JP LaPorte [vice president of engineering] joined us after Paul White’s passing. Bruce Alexander [manufacturing strategy and excellence] joined us to shore up production after Kevin Bogan retired. So really, it’s that change in management in our executive team that is different than what we saw last year. The way [LaPorte] said it was excellent — we had to be where we were to get where we are today.