"I've had lots of failures": Jayco boss reflects on 50 years of building campers

One of Australia's most successful entrepreneurs has reflected on a 50-year business career that has resulted in more than 275,000 locally-built RVs and related products hitting the roads.

While Jayco's Gerry Ryan has made a significant impact across a range of pursuits, from major investments in big-time sports to various hospitality and entertainment projects, it all started in his early-20s when he decided to put a team together to build camper trailers.

"I had the opportunity to work on a factory floor in Oakleigh, a company called Sunwagon, and after three months they made me a foreman," Ryan recalls in a recent Streets Discovered video.

"I was only 20 at the time. A year later I became production manager running 100 people, building camper trailers."

"I had the opportunity to go the 'States with this company called Jayco supplying components to Sunwagon, and (after) two and half weeks looking at production methods and design, came back three months later (and the) two companies had merged. I was pushed to the side 'What do the Americans know?', so I got a bit frustrated and I thought why can't I do it...

"So I had a dream; (I) had the passion and what I needed to do was put a plan together. I know manufacturing, (and) I got to know sales by going out and visiting some dealerships. I had lunch with the purchasing manager so I'd understand how purchasing worked, the rest is history.

"I started with 60 employees that were very loyal, that came from Sunwagon and in January of '75 we produced our first camper."

Now in his mid-70s, Ryan currently employs around 1000 people at the huge Jayco factory in Dandenong, Victoria; an outer region of Melbourne that now boasts close to 1400 manufacturing businesses and which Ryan describes as the "manufacturing hub of Australia".

"(Making a business a success) is all about people," he explains.

"People who share the same passion and have the same vision as you do, and you have a strategy and then execute that strategy.

"It's producing something better, whether it's a better product, better price or better service that what the competition is (doing)," Ryan continues.

"One thing that's kept us alive for 50 years is innovation, and if you keep doing the same way or building the same product you get the same result. So you're always looking for an improvement in the product or the service."

"(If Jayco had failed) I would have tried another business, like caravans again or the building industry," Ryan says. "I've had lots of failures over the years. It's important to always have a road map, always have a parachute, and (an) exit; planning, planning and persistence...

"I feel very proud about the size that Jayco has grown to and you look at the facilities but it's the people in the buildings. People are your greatest asset. I'm proud to see some of the people who've been with me 40 years who started on the floor and now have management roles."

Jayco is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year in a number of different ways, including offering limited edition models and giving away a 'dream job'.

Looking towards the next 50 years, Ryan has also been playing an active role in a new 'Buy Australian' campaign through a series of 'Built here. Backed here' dealer-run expos, as rising numbers of imported caravans start to adversely impact the local manufacturing industry.

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