Forest River Inc. Adds Ally Financial as Wholesale Finance Provider

As Ally Financial continues to expand its presence in the RV industry,  the finance company will now be an additional provider for dealer inventory financing in the U.S. for Forest River Inc.

Ally will participate in Forest River’s interest reimbursement program for RV dealers who obtain wholesale financing from Ally. Eligible dealers can receive an interest rebate from Forest River for units sold to retail customers within 90 days of invoice. 

The program is meant to help dealers tackle one of the industry’s biggest challenges: aged inventories. “One thing I like about this program, is that it gives dealers an incentive to turn inventories quicker,” Mark Manzo, Ally’s vice president of alliance sales, told AutoFinanceNews.net.

Ally has been in the RV industry less than two years and continues to expand at a fairly accelerated rate. 

“We are pretty excited about the progress as we continue to expand to over 1,000 dealers,” he said, which includes retail and wholesale combined. 

In addition to wholesale financing, Ally will offer Forest River dealer real estate and commercial loans, inventory insurance, remarketing services for RV trade-ins, and consumer financing to support new and used RV sales. Remarketing will be done through Ally’s SmartAuction platform, which will allow RV dealers to put inventory online and sell more efficiently, Manzo explained. 

“Ally Financial is a proven financial services provider with nationwide scale for the U.S. RV industry, and we are pleased to develop this relationship for our dealer network,” said Joseph Greenlee, Forest River’s chief financial officer, in a statement. 

The RV market has remained somewhat level over the past few years — a trend Manzo expects to continue — while dealers have adjusted their business models accordingly.

“As we move forward, our commitment to our dealers is strong, and there is opportunity to expand as the market expands as well,” he said. “It’s a good market to be in.”