Thetford LLC acquired Florida-based distributor Dave Carter & Associates, Inc.
Thetford is a supplier of sanitation, refrigeration, and cooking products for the RV and marine OEM industries and aftermarket. Dave Carter & Associates is a distributor of electrical, plumbing and building supplies.
Thetford CEO Stéphane Cordeille said the acquisition will enable Thetford to offer a broader product range and expand its logistical capabilities.
“In particular, increasing our scale in the world’s largest RV and manufactured housing market will unleash greater financial, management and operational resources to fuel our growth worldwide,” Cordeille said. “We will be better positioned than ever to meet our customers’ needs in every market and in each line of business across the 65 countries where we operate.”
Dave Carter’s Aaron LaFleur will become Thetford’s North American RV general manager. LaFleur was promoted to Dave Carter’s regional operations director role in February 2024. He oversaw the Goshen warehouse.
LaFleur has over two decades of industry experience, including over a decade with Lippert.
“The combined Thetford-DCA platform ensures stability for the valued employees, customers and suppliers who have placed their trust in us over the years,” he said, “and provides new resources to unlock opportunities for growth, expand our offerings, and further strengthen our level of customer service that is already the best in the business.”
David Froom, who had been Dave Carter’s vice president of sales and marketing, will be Thetford’s North American Manufactured Housing general manager.
Froom said, “Together, we are actively exploring ways to capitalize on the additional resources available as a combined company to provide innovative new products and services to our market-leading customers.”
David Carter Sr. founded Dave Carter & Associates in 1976. The company began as a wholesale electrical products distributor for the manufactured housing industry. In the 1990s, the distribution company expanded into plumbing products. By 2008, Carter Sr. entered the RV industry, filling a void in the marketplace after the Great Recession.
He established a distribution center in Goshen, Indiana, and secured longstanding contracts with every major RV producer.
David Carter III returned to the family business in 2015, following the death of his father, then-president Dave Carter Jr. In 2019, Carter III became president of the company. He will remain in a consulting role in the short term during the company transition.
Dave Carter & Associates distributes nationally and has 11 facilities across the U.S. and Canada.
David Carter Sr. was inducted posthumously into the RV/Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame in 2022. He passed away in December 2021, two weeks after learning about his upcoming induction.
