L Catterton, a leading global consumer-focused investment firm, announced that it has made a strategic investment in Open Road Resorts (ORR), an operating platform managing a portfolio of RV parks across the U.S.
ORR has established a collection of clean, safe, highly amenitized, family-friendly RV and camping destinations nationwide for campers who are seeking exceptional outdoor experiences, the firm said. L Catterton is joined by THOR Industries, Long Light Capital and Chesapeake Partners, establishing a strategic investment consortium with deep experience in the outdoor, hospitality and adventure categories.
Founded by Chase Becker and Jim Omstrom in 2019, Open Road Resorts was established with the vision of providing a best-in-class experience for RVers by building a portfolio of parks at in-demand locations across the U.S. and maintaining rigorous standards to ensure consumer expectations are consistently exceeded. U.S. household participation in camping remains robust and continues to grow meaningfully, with the number of active camping households growing annually since 2015 and now sitting at over 60 million. Open Road Resorts seeks to capitalize on this strong, consistent demand while ensuring RVers and outdoor enthusiasts are provided memorable experiences, it said.
Currently, Open Road Resorts operates five parks across Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and Texas. The ORR team seeks to provide superior hospitality experiences by acquiring exceptional parks and investing in key enhancements to drive consumer satisfaction. The investment will support ORR’s acquisition of additional parks, allow for investment in key amenities and infrastructure across new and existing parks, and enable further investments in marketing and brand-building nationwide.
“We are incredibly excited to work with a group of partners with deep experience in the outdoor category. With partners such as L Catterton and THOR, we believe we will be able to meaningfully scale our operations and geographic presence,” said Chase Becker, co-founder of Open Road Resorts.
Jim Omstrom, fellow ORR co-founder, added: “We established Open Road Resorts with the goal of building a collection of parks that offer our guests a consistent, high-quality, memorable experience at desirable destinations across the U.S. We believe this investment will help us achieve that goal.”
“We partnered with the Open Road Resorts team because we believe they are building a uniquely compelling offering for campers that will be highly desirable to our current and future customers. We always seek to provide our consumers with a superior experience, and partnering with ORR allows us to accomplish this goal by ensuring their access to the next great brand in outdoor hospitality,” said Todd Woelfer, senior vice president and chief operating officer of THOR.
“We are thrilled to partner with Jim, Chase and the fantastic investor base of Open Roads Resorts to scale the ORR platform and help grow the next great outdoor hospitality company,” said Matt Nugent, partner in L Catterton’s Growth Fund. “We are huge believers in the long-term growth of the RV market and in outdoor participation more generally, and we believe ORR is optimally positioned to provide a compelling experience to a broad set of outdoor enthusiasts across the country.”