David George-Cosh

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The head of Ski-Doo and snowmobile maker BRP Inc. said the company has seen a surge in demand from new customers for its products amid a "rollercoaster" year that led the company to report record quarterly sales.

"We're all wondering how the retail would go and how the interest for product would go. To our surprise, the retail has started to pick up [in] May, June, July, and it was a surge of a new customer and it never stopped since," said José Boisjoli, chief executive officer at BRP, in a broadcast interview.

BRP reported fiscal 2022 first-quarter revenue of $1.8 billion on Thursday, an increase of 47 per cent from the same period a year earlier, while its earnings with interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose 208 per cent to $379 million.

New customers represented 37 per cent of BRP's sales, nearly double what the company typically sees in a quarter, the company said in a release on Thursday.

Boisjoli said the influx of new users is an "incredible opportunity" for the company that came following a years-long marketing strategy to target customers who typically wouldn't enter the recreational vehicle market. Now, he adds, the company's goal is to turn those customers into lifetime users.

The company hiked its year-end guidance to $5.9 billion, up as much as one-third from its last fiscal year while targeting nearly $1 billion in EBITDA. To meet increased demand for its products, Boisjoli said the company is building a new production facility in Mexico that will be operational by the end of the third quarter but noted that the company does expect some shipping delays over the course of the year.

"We just wanted to tell the investor that don't be surprised if Q2 and Q3 retail sales are not as high as expected," he said. "We're confident to meet our guidance for the end of the year."

Boisjoli also said that the company is beginning to invest in electrifying its recreational vehicle lineup, and intends to offer an electric version of each model in its product line by the end of 2026.

"It's difficult to see at this point in 20 years what proportion of our product will be electric or combustion, but we'll be offering both technologies to the consumer," he said.