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NEWS
Bolwell seeks China solution
Aussie icon set to crack Chinese market with joint venture approachSpecialist fibreglass manufacturer Bolwell appears to have found a successful pathway into the mushrooming Chinese RV market at a time when other Australian companies are struggling for traction.
Melbourne-based Bolwell RV is exploring the feasibility of manufacturing versions of its current Air folding-wall camper trailer and Edge front-hinged pop-top crossover caravan in China to a growing appetite by the country’s Middle Class for leisure vehicles.
At present most Chinese motorists can only tow trailers weighing up to 750kg without a driving licence upgrade, but according to Bolwell Corporation’s Melbourne-based CEO Paul Lyons, this is currently being relaxed.
“The Chinese Government has recognised the desire of many of its middle class to go camping, fishing, walking and caravanning and is releasing new tracts of land for this purpose,” he said.
“Whereas ‘caravanning’ for most Chinese means driving to from an on-site caravan, we expect this to change soon.
“We think our lightweight and stylish fibreglass models are better suited to Chinese tastes than typical rugged Australian caravans and campers.”
The Bolwell Air and Edge are currently manufactured in China, but are finished, quality checked and certified to comply with Australian RV requirements by Track Trailer’s Outback Headquarters in Boronia, Victoria.
Bolwell then provides customers with an Australian warranty for the completed product.
Lyons, who has been dealing with Bolwell RV’s Chinese joint venturers for the past 12 years, said he has been working on a feasibility of selling Bolwell RV products direct to the Chinese market for the past 12 months.
“An important advantage we have over others seeking to enter the Chinese market is that we already have a joint venture partner with a financial stake in seeing the product succeed,” he said.
“Our partners also make top quality luxury aluminium boats, while their fibreglass expertise comes from one of their divisions manufacturing spa baths. This allows us to build top quality products and the Chinese are rapidly growing quality conscious.”
The Bolwell Corporation has an enviable reputation for the creative application of composite materials – from sports cars to trucks and many products in between.
It began designing caravans in 2008 and in 2010 the company established Bolwell RV as a dedicated caravan business. It’s first RV, the stylish pop-top Edge received the first of many design and innovation awards in 2011.
A massive fire that destroyed more than two thirds of the Bolwell Plastic Moulders factory in Mordialloc, Victoria in April 2014, called a temporary halt to RV production, which up to that point had been manufactured in Australia.
In the wake of the fire, Bolwell decided to focus its Australian manufacturing activities on its core manufacturing and vacuum forming business that includes producing composite truck cabs for manufacturers such as Kenworth and Iveco and to outsource its RV activities.
Following this decision, Outback Headquarters was appointed the National Distributor of Chinese made Bolwell RV products when Bolwell re-entered the Australian RV market mid-2016 after a two-year sabbatical.
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Written byMichael Browning
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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