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NEWS
Farming business buys Trakmaster
Agricultural machinery manufacturer A.F. Gason takes the reins of 20-year-old, Melbourne off-road caravan specialistIt will be ‘business as usual’ for Trakmaster buyers and members of the 584-member strong Trakmaster Caravan Club according to Russell Seebach, who last week sold the off-road specialist caravan business he founded in 1995 when he couldn’t find caravans tough enough for the Outback tours he was organising.
Trakmaster’s new owner is A.F. Gason, a fourth-generation family company that has just celebrated its 70th year in business and manufactures heavy agricultural machinery and domestic heaters at its ISO9001 accredited facilities in Ararat, Victoria.
Gason employs 130 people in Ararat with some having worked with the company for more than 40 years, however there are no plans to relocate Trakmaster operations.
While specific details of the handover are still being finalised, it appears that Gason will take a long-term lease over the existing 1.5 hectare Trakmaster freehold property in Bayswater, Melbourne that houses the company’s 4790sq.m manufacturing facility.
Gason’s purchase of Trakmaster is déjà vu for the company whose association with the caravan industry dates back to the immediate post war era of the late 1940s.
Frank Gason’s first venture into building caravans from the ground-up occurred in 1949 when he built a luxury caravan for his own use. In 1951 he started building vans for instrumentalities such as the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, the Grain Elevators Board etc.
Following that Gason started to build caravans for individual customers both for business and recreational purposes.
A F Gason’s Managing Director Terry Pye also has credentials in the off-road RV industry, having been General Manager at Track Trailer in the mid-2000s.
Speaking about the acquisition, Pye said it was a fitting return by Gason to a product with which it historically had been successful with during the late 1940s through to the 1960s.
"Like Trakmaster, Gason has an outstanding reputation for producing products known for their quality and reliability,” he said. “The synergy between the two businesses will continue to provide customers with the highest quality products in both market segments.
“Ian Paterson has been appointed as Trakmaster’s General Manager and our plan will be to work closely with the experienced people at Trakmaster and to strengthen that business by adding to the development of new products. This in turn will enable us to expand the opportunity for growth and allow us to add to the outstanding customer experience Trakmaster already offers”.
As part of the ownership change Trakmaster will also strengthen its ties with the Trakmaster Off-Road Caravan Club, with Seebach being asked to continue his association with the Owners’ Group he founded 20 years ago.
“They did ask if could I run more club trips each year,” he said. “I had to give that some serious thought – for a nano-second!
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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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