Time will tell about the move by Charter. My money, however, is that they will not make it. Certainly, as Bob Zagami states, there is a lot more required than just words and hand waving. Deep pockets and solid resources are the life-blood of acquisitions and a solid strategy is needed.

I also share a deep feeling for the Mom and Pop folks who have dedicated their lives to building a solid reputation with an RV Dealership. They certainly deserve to reap the fruits of their labors. But, there are many good folks out in the business world who are looking for a place to invest their money, especially in a going business.

Time will tell how this latest move by Charter will pan out.

A quick look at their so-called business plan reveals:

139 Words on marketing and strategy.

102 Words on the competititon.

187 Words on the management team.

I’ll skip the RV Industry Overview and Outlook because that’s all stuff we have all read a hundred times over.

Back to the business plan:

159 Words and their RV dealership aquisition plan.

If this was a classroom project, they would fail the guy who wrote it.

If this is all a company can write when they are trying to attract dealers that want to sell, and people that want to invest in their stock - good luck, I wish them well but suspect either line you want to get into will not be very crowded.

Their business plan calls for one more dealership purchase in the next fifteen months, and two more in 2009. Their stated goal is a MINIMUM of $150,000,000 of annual sales revenue BY 2010. Now in my business book, that would translate to December 31, 2009. However, this same plan calls for total revenue in 2009 to be only $80,000,000.

Now while they are doing all this, their real estate investment group wants to buy up distressed, pre-forclosed and foreclosed properties at a time when the real estate market is tanking.

And with the extra time they have on their hands, they are launching a media and marketing group (remember what I said about hyping pink sheet stocks) and they will be launching new web sites in the next 60 days.

Now I don’t know these people, any of them, and I’m sure not a charter member of the AGI Fan Club - they rejected my application …. however, this business plan leaves a lot unsaid.

If they want to get into the ring with AGI and fight over RV dealerships, you better buy your ticket early and be in your seat when the bell rings, because this one may not make it past the first round.

They have also tried the roll-up concept at least two other times without fruition. What makes me wonder this time is that Charter has no RV history and has bought a sizeable dealership with what? Their assetts are reported at 800+ thousand and their pink sheet stock has gone from $3 to 19 cents. I wonder where the cash is coming from to buy those next 4 dealers? Apparently this is all being done with stock, but to date, there have been no reports to the SEC posted of any transactions, including Saddleback.

Like most pink companies, their PR guys are pumpin’ along just fine, though.

It seems to me that some questions need to be answered before anybody gets to excited about ‘public RV dealerships’.

I don’t have an AutoNation in my area, but I believe those are strictly used car franchises.

If so, what is the Charter plan in the RV industry? I don’t think there are a lot of “exclusively used inventory” RV dealerships, are there?

This initially sounds to me like the same plan as AGI has done with the “MEGA” stores.