Lithia is now in the RV business after Airstream Adventures purchase

Lithia Motors Inc., which has remained on a franchised dealership acquisition tear in 2022, is now in the recreational vehicle business — and the rapidly expanding company didn't have to travel far to do so.

Lithia on Oct. 2 bought Airstream Adventures, a collection of six Airstream stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California. The group, founded in 2010 by partners Ted Davis, Parker Johnstone and John Dimmer, is based in Clackamas, Ore., near Portland. Performance Brokerage Services, an Irvine, Calif., buy-sell firm, represented them in the sale.

Airstream Adventures sells new and used models, and it provides service and parts.

Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer, speaking during the company's third-quarter earnings call this week, described the purchase as a low-cost investment.

"I think it's really a beta test, and we've obviously talked about the idea of all different mobility channels," DeBoer said. In late 2021, Lithia bought a Harley-Davidson store in Toronto.

He said the company has no real initiative to grow the business "other than to really get a feel for what some of these other mobility verticals could look like."

Still, the acquisition gives Lithia a significant foothold in an industry it previously didn't compete in. DeBoer said Airstream Adventures sells almost one-fifth of all Airstreams in the country.

"We didn't really anticipate maybe getting into this space this soon, but Ted's company was the best partner," said Tom Dobry, Lithia's vice president of strategic operations. "So we kind of pulled that forward."

Davis, who joined Lithia following the sale as a platform general manager, pointed to both companies being Oregon-based and high-volume sellers as connections between the two groups.

"Just as I started looking at my long-term succession planning, I realized I needed to have a pathway forward," Davis told Automotive News. "And we weren't in any need or rush to sell the dealer group."

But selling to Lithia also means Airstream Adventures can tap into the retail giant's technology and operational expertise and potentially grow the business down the road, Davis said.

"The footprint that they provide around the country gives us opportunities to continually grow by looking at additional potential open points, acquisitions," Davis said. "It really gives us leverage we've never had before."

Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 2 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 260,738 new vehicles in 2021.