Newmar closed out its dealer meeting with its annual awards presentation. This year, the manufacturer presented two new awards, in addition to its traditional sales and service honors.
The Black Diamond Award, honoring one dealer for achieving perfect consumer scores in sales and service, was presented to DeMartini RV in Grass Valley, California. The dealership achieved 100% consumer ratings in sales satisfaction and in service reviews. In addition, the single-store dealership posted the lowest 2025 repair event cycle time of any Newmar dealer.
As owners Tim and Margie DeMartini led their team to the stage to accept the award, dealer meeting attendees rose to their feet to applaud the accomplishment.
Tim DeMartini said his team worked tirelessly last year to achieve the top results. He said putting consumers first drove the team’s success. During the dinner before the awards presentation, Tim DeMartini said he was texting with a buyer who bought a Newmar motorhome three weeks ago. He returned from a cruise to find that his microwave was only working at high speed. DeMartini had a new microwave, so he shipped the appliance to Indiana, where a factory representative was scheduled to pick it up and replace the faulty one.
The other new award, the Progress Achievement Award, was presented to Blue Compass of San Marcos, California. The award recognized 2025 improvement from the previous year.
Among the night’s top award recipients was National Indoor RV Center. The dealer chain was named among the top 10 dealers by sales. Its Lewisville, Texas, store earned a Platinum service award, and its Las Vegas, Nevada, and Lawrenceville, Georgia, stores earned Gold service awards.
Founder and CEO Brett Davis said the achievements reflect the company’s goal of providing the same consumer experience at each of its locations.
“We do not have a customer service survey that is like filling out a 1040 form,” he said. “Every single time we touch a customer, they get an email and hit a frowny face or a smiley face. The frowny faces come out of the computer automatically at 6 a.m. every morning, it is on the GM’s desk, and their first priority is to call these people, make it right, and get things back on track.”
He said the Newmar awards were the result of NIRVC’s day-to-day focus on excellence.
Earlier in the day, Winnebago Industries President and CEO Mike Happe addressed attendees. He said Newmar’s introduction of its compact Type C Freedom Aire last year is an example of
the expansion Winnebago wants to pursue carefully. He said the parent company has no intention of changing Newmar’s brand positioning.
“This is one of the crown jewels,” he said of Newmar, “and we want to keep it that way.”
Happe praised Newmar for increasing its market share in Type A diesel and gas motorhomes since Winnebago’s 2019 acquisition. He noted that Newmar’s Super C motorhomes were just hitting the market in 2019 and posted a 7% market share in 2025.
“I can just tell you that Newmar has the full and unconditional support of Winnebago Industries,” he said. “[Newmar President Casey Tubman] and his team have autonomy facing the market, and they have support from the organization.”
Happe said as the industry continues to face a slow retail market, manufacturers including Newmar must improve their quality. He said even Newmar has a significant opportunity to improve.
“Tomorrow’s consumers are different than yesterday’s,” he said, “and we must adapt all of our business practices to drive a consumer experience that not only meets but exceeds the expectations of consumers.”
He wrapped up by discussing artificial intelligence (AI) and urging attendees to be open-minded about AI tools.
“This stuff is real,” he said. “Don’t take it for granted. We would love to have that conversation with you over the future.”
