Camping World Category: Recreational Vehicle Dealership Chain Official Site: CampingWorld.com Wikipedia: Camping World Address: Description: A chain of recreational vehicle dealerships founded in 1966 and now based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Page Sections: History · Sponsorships · Article Index

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Camping World page on 5 July 2022, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Camping World Holdings, Inc. is an American corporation specializing in selling recreational vehicles (RVs), recreational vehicle parts, and recreational vehicle service. They also sell supplies for camping. The company has its headquarters in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In October 2016 it became a publicly traded company when it raised $251 million in an IPO. Camping World operates over 180 retail/service locations in 46 states, and also sells goods through mail order and online. It claims to be the world's largest supplier of RV parts and supplies.

The company is heavily involved in sponsorship of sports entities, such as serving as the title sponsor of Camping World Stadium and the Camping World Kickoff, which is played in the same stadium. It is also the official presenting sponsor of Major League Baseball's League Championship Series, NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series, and the National Hot Rod Association's Camping World Drag Racing Series.

Camping World began in 1966 with a small store in Beech Bend Park, an amusement park outside of Bowling Green which billed its campground as the world's largest. Campers at the park were requesting a store where they could buy supplies, so David Garvin—son of the park's owner—took out a loan and opened the store. Garvin amassed a large customer list as the years went by, which proved to be sagacious later when he added a mail-order division to the company. That division thrived, fueling the company's growth for years to come.

In 1997, Garvin sold the company to the current owners, Good Sam Enterprises (formerly Affinity Group), of Ventura, California.

In 2005, Garvin announced plans for a huge development near Franklin, Kentucky called "Garvin's". The development, described by Garvin as "a combination of Disney World, Camping World and Bass Pro Shops", will feature a large Camping World store with RV 250 service bays; a five-story, 650,000 square foot (60,000 m²) permanent RV trade show and exhibition area; a "free-range" campground with dry-camping sites; camping museum; and much more. Due to the recession, however, the venture never got off the ground and much of the land proposed for development was sold at auction in October 2011.

In early October 2016 Camping World raised $251 million in an initial public offering. The 11.4 million shares sold for $22 each. Marcus Lemonis co-owns the company with private equity firm Crestview Partners and plans to retain "substantial control" through his ownership of ML Acquisition and ML R.V. Group.

Camping World has been involved in sponsoring American motorsports most notably with NASCAR and the title sponsorship of the Camping World Truck Series beginning in 2009. They have also sponsored the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series beginning in 2021.

Camping World has also sponsored individual events, including the following:

Date	Article	Details
28 July 2005	Cobb America Roadshow Tours Camping World Supercenter Locations Florida-based Cobb America, Inc., US distributor of the Cobb BBQ Grill, has confirmed that eight Camping World Supercenters have been added to the Cobb Roadshow Tour schedule for April, May and August of 2005.	Press Release ( PDF) Author: Christina Ortega Business: Cobb America, Inc. Topic: Camping World