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NEWS
HSV owner goes caravanning
Walkinshaw Auto Group buys into New Age CaravansIt might sound like an odd fit at first glance, but the company behind Holden Special Vehicles has announced its intention to buy a share of a caravan manufacturer.
The deal, which will see Walkinshaw Automotive Group take a 50 per cent stake in New Age Caravans, is expected to be consummated within a month after 12 months of discussion.
Walkinshaw Automotive Group (WAG) not only owns Holden hot tuner HSV, but also converts RAM trucks to right-hand drive via its American Special Vehicles joint-venture with Ateco Automotive.
It also distributes Indian Tata vehicles in Australia, runs a Supercars race team, is behind the Walkinshaw Performance modification business and performs a significant amount of ‘below the line’ engineering, design and development work for various automotive manufacturers.
New Age is a growing Australian caravan brand established seven years ago. It is based in Epping in Victoria, where it currently builds more than 2000 caravans per year.
It is
number two in the market, albeit still a long way behind the market leader Jayco, which builds around 10,000 caravans per year.
number two in the market, albeit still a long way behind the market leader Jayco, which builds around 10,000 caravans per year.
New Age Caravans will continue to be led by Gabby Montagnese as managing director and Chair.
“Our partnership with Walkinshaw strengthens our ability to grow and bring new and exciting product lines to our customers,” she said.
“Walkinshaw’s experience will help us to accelerate our focus on growth and innovation in caravans – including new materials, engineering and processes.”
“We looked at different structures to bring a partnership approach to life, and decided that Walkinshaw taking a significant stake in New Age Caravans made a lot of sense because of the position we have been able to establish in the market, and the unique skills and capabilities they can bring to the table.”
A statement issued yesterday shed some light on the unusual collaboration, stating the two companies had “a shared vision of innovation in products, materials, and technologies for the caravan and RV sector”.
“Passion and creativity are at the heart of every caravan New Age builds – just as it is for every vehicle Walkinshaw creates for our loyal customer base,” said WAG owner Ryan Walkinshaw.
“With our niche automotive experience and a shared focus on R&D from both companies, customers can expect to see some exciting innovations to their caravan and camping lifestyle.
“We are great admirers of what Gabby has been able to achieve, and taking a stake in New Age is a clear signal of our desire to build on what has already been achieved, and a belief in our ability to assist in the next phase of growth for New Age Caravans," he said.
Walkinshaw later went into more detail about how the auto group could help New Age achieve its objective of being the biggest-selling caravan brand in Australia.
“We believe New Age is a fast growing and fantastic business and we hope we can potentially add value, in small ways at first and then in bigger ways in the future, by delivering new product innovation and bringing some of the disciplines across from the automotive industry that aren’t necessarily the industry standard in caravans," he said.
“We’ll be looking at new materials, innovative technologies and chassis development, all sorts of things to support New Age in its vision of becoming the number one caravan business in Australia.”
Walkinshaw also confirmed WAG technical chief Joel Stoddart’s time at caravan industry leader Jayco had helped generate interest in investing in New Age.
“Caravans were already something that were on our radar, but Joel doing his time at Jayco and coming back certainly helped lead us in that direction.”
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Written byBruce Newton
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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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