Kimberley Kampers ramps up production

After several stumbles, it appears that Kimberley Kampers is officially back in business, with plans to build a rationalised Kamper, Karavan and Kruiser range in Ballina, with a skinnier workforce, more common components and a factory re-opening in June in advance of the brand’s 25th Anniversary celebrations.

Yes, really!

New joint owner James Cockburn told caravancampingsales that he and former Kimberley General Manger Brett McLaren were committed to rebuilding Kimberley along more conservative, traditional lines, but that technology and innovation would remain key aspects of the Northern NSW brand’s DNA.

Both attended the annual gathering of Kimberley owners in Victoria’s Grampians on the week prior to Easter, where 97 campers and caravans and 200 owners were present.

“There is enormous goodwill and desire to see the brand succeed,” said Cockburn, who currently operates two Kimberley multi-franchise dealerships in Caboolture and Perth. “It was very encouraging.”

Cockburn said that despite the ‘off and on’ fortunes of Kimberley over the past 12 months, “to the best of my knowledge, no-one has lost their deposit on any new Kimberleys".

He said some Kimberley dealers had repaid deposits, while others were still being honoured on new units being built in Ballina.

“Although we are not officially open, we are currently building vehicles to honour these orders and we delivered a third of these in the week prior to Easter,” he said.

Cockburn said the biggest hurdle that he and McLaren faced was acquiring ownership of Kimberley’s Intellectual Property from the company’s former owner, Todd Cannock. He  said the process was completed on January 4 this year.

“We now have the worldwide rights to build all Kimberley products, including use of trademarks and logos.

“With the IP, we also acquired all the necessary moulds and patterns to keep building Kimberley products and we then spent around $750,000 at the online auction re-equipping ourselves to recommence production,” he said.

Cockburn said that 17 of Kimberley’s former 70-strong workforce had been re-employed to resurrect production, with preference given to those who were multi-skilled.

His Caboolture-based SEQ Campers and Gear plans to display the revitalised Kimberley range at the Queensland Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow at the Brisbane Showgrounds from June 5-10.

Although not currently up, he said a ‘landing’ version of the Kimberley website would be running by early May and the factory’s doors would re-open to the public shortly afterwards.

“We have a database of 35,000 people to talk to and they are all waiting for positive news about us,” Cockburn said.

He said that all the business’s former suppliers had been very supportive and had been ready to offer credit to re-establish production from the outset.

“I think the fact that the company is being run by someone who has been strongly involved in the brand for 10-12 years has obviously helped,” Cockburn said. "Brett is also very well known to them, as he was the company’s General Manager for six years under former owner Bruce Luxton.

“We plan to walk, not run, to get Kimberley back on its feet... We need to re-establish the brand again and win back buyer trust, although our existing owners clearly support us.

“As an example of this, we will be going back to our well-known orange and red brand colours. Kimberley has spent nearly a quarter century building its brand and we are not planning to do anything to dilute it.”