Big plans for Bailey Oz

The launch of the first caravan built by a UK manufacturer in Australia is just the beginning of a bold move that could see purpose-built Aussie Bailey vans exported to New Zealand, South Korea and even China.

Speaking during the ground-breaking, trans-Australia ‘real world’ test of the first Bailey Rangefinder prototypes, Bailey UK marketing director Simon Howard said it was a logical move for Bailey to have a stand-alone facility down under to meet demand in emerging caravan markets in the region.

“From our point of view it makes sense to have a second production and design development centre here because the Australian market has been very successful,” Howard said.

It’s believed as many as 1000 UK-built Bailey vans have hit Australian roads since the brand launched here in 2011, and the factory is hoping to double current annual sales of around 250 in the short term with the arrival of the ‘true blue’ Rangefinder line-up next month.

Around 70 UK-built Bailey vans are currently sold each year in New Zealand, with exports to Korea just starting.

“Potentially (Bailey Australia) can supply directly to New Zealand. We also export to Korea so that could be another market. We’ve obviously looked at China but we don’t think the market is quite ready yet,” Howard said.

The new Rangefinder is a unique locally-manufactured blend of leading-edge British RV technology and proven local components by Australia’s only British or European-owned caravan manufacturer.

Initially, the Rangefinder’s ‘Alu-Tech’ composite body panels will be supplied by Bailey UK but “that’s set to change at some point as well, as we’ll set up our own panel manufacturing in Melbourne” said Bailey Australia boss Adrian Van Geelen.

While the new Rangefinder brings a range of British design and engineering standards to Australia (see ‘destruction’ testing video below), Howard said knowledge sharing could work both ways, with Australian-developed slide-outs potentially adopted on UK models.

“(All changes on the Rangefinder) are potentially transferable (to UK-built vans),” he said.

“I think the demand would be there (for slide-outs in the UK) as people like to maximise their interior space as much as possible, but at the moment no-one’s really come up with an effective solution (lightweight and water tight), although slide technology has improved."

Bailey Australia has also adopted cutting-edge, automotive industry technology used by its UK parent in developing the Rangefinder, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for improving aerodynamics and stability, and finite element analysis (FEA) for gauging durability of design.

“We’re looking at a (plastic) reversing camera module that bolts onto the back of the caravan (in which) we build a scoop or something similar to break up (rear airflow)… it’s another way to get the caravan glued to the ground,” Van Geelen explained.

“I reckon changes to airflow and things like that will come out in the Gen 2 (Rangefinder).”

Bailey Australia is also likely to benefit from ‘best practice’ production processes adopted at the Bailey UK factory, where it currently takes just two hours and forty minutes to build a van “from start to finish”.

Following the tyre tracks of other European brands including Swift, Adria and Knaus, Bailey Australia is also looking to introduce a range of motorhomes based on Peugeot-based models available in the UK.

Despite moving in just over a year ago, Van Geelen expects to quickly out-grow Bailey Australia’s current 3000 sq.m factory in Campbellfield, Victoria, where the Rangefinder will be built at the rate of one van a day.