Jurgens Australia shuts its door

South African-owned Jurgens Australia appears to be the latest victim of the slowing Australian retail sector, with employees facing locked gates and security guards at its Sharnet Circuit, Pakenham factory when they turned up for work this week.

Jurgens owners and prospective customers are none the wiser, with the company exhibiting at this year’s Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow in February and posting on Facebook as recently as 13 March, including inviting prospective buyers to factory tours to ‘see how a Jurgens caravan is built before you buy’.

As we reported in Caravancampingsales in December last year, South African company owner Paul Kyriacou admitted there had been “significant speculation about the future of Jurgens Australia” following its South African HQ being placed into provisional liquidation.

Following a dispute with major suppliers, the Pretoria High Court in South Africa placed Jurgens Ci Pty Ltd in provisional liquidation and called on all interested parties “to show cause on or before 6 February 2019” why Jurgens) should not be placed in final liquidation.

The issue dates back to mid-September last year when a case against Jurgens South Africa supplier Megafreight Services (Pty) Ltd was brought to court, however the legal notice of the application was only published on December 9.

Around 50 Jurgens employees - some of whom have been with the company for more than 10 years - found a lease termination notice posted on the factory’s locked front gates when they returned to work on 18 March, with some claiming that while they were aware of the company’s on-going financial problems, they had been given no forewarning of the sudden closure.

However, an insider said while it was unwelcome, it was hardly surprise news. He said that from a peak of around 44 caravans a month, Jurgens Australia had produced just 12 caravans this year, with losses in terms of unpaid rent at the rate of $35,000 per month, adding to the company’s financial woes.

Jurgens Australia Pty Ltd was registered in August 2007 and initially was based in Tooradin in Victoria before moving to a larger factory in Pakenham around six years ago.

To help drive sales Jurgens recently introduced a new glossy fibreglass Solaris touring caravan plus a new version of the South African-built off-road TuffTrax.

One employee reportedly told a Pakenham Star community newspaper reporter that the company reportedly owed half a million dollars in rent on the premises.

Despite the South African parent’s financial woes, Jurgens Australia has been putting on a brave local face, telling caravancampingsales last December that it was ‘business as usual’ going forward.

“It was all a brave front,” our insider told us. “There was no hope of them recovering back then.”

Phoning the factory results in callers being referred to Jurgens’ dealer network, or to recorded messages saying that the receiver is ‘busy on another call’.

Jurgens Ci (Pty) Ltd is one of the largest caravan manufacturers in the southern hemisphere and has built more than 100,000 caravans since 1952.

Jurgens are still registered on ASIC, however an ASIC spokesperson confirmed a notification of a court action relating to the winding-up of the company had been issued on 7 March.

“They have been taking deposits since then,” our insider told us.