More Coromal/Windsor dealers coming

Fleetwood RV, Australia's third-largest caravan manufacturer which builds Coromal and Windsor vans in Perth, has taken further aggressive steps to shore up its national dealer network as part of the ASX-listed group's recovery from its sales slump in recent years.

Fleetwood last weekend advertised for new dealers in Victoria to supplement its current lone outlet of Bendigo Caravan Centre, while it has just appointed a new dealer in Coffs Harbour, is about to appoint a dealership in Newcastle and is currently seeking a fourth Queensland dealership on the Sunshine Coast.

In Victoria, the heartland of the Australian caravan industry, Fleetwood is urgently seeking a high profile in Melbourne, while also seeking to appoint new dealers in Gippsland and just over the borders in Albury and Mt.Gambier.

The Albury dealership will replace Fleetwood's previous dealership in Wagga Wagga, while the others will all be additional to their current Australia-wide tally of dealerships, which currently stands at 15.

The group is also seeking someone to represent it in Sydney, where it is also absent, with the fallback position that its Nowra and Newcastle dealers between them could service this vast and lucrative market.

Paul Sparke, the national sales and marketing manager for Coromal and Windsor Caravans, said current production of both products was already double the 20 vans a week that it slumped to at this time last year. However he said his prediction of 45 vans a week by midyear was now looking less likely.

"The cork in the bottle now is getting the right East Coast outlets to market and sell our products,” he said. "Certainly getting a quality Melbourne dealer is a key, regional buyers account for a lot of sales in the RV market. I'm already responding to two expressions of interest that our Victorian advertising has generated.”

He believed that Fleetwood RV had the right product mix to support the planned expansion.

At present, 80 per cent of current production is Coromal campers, pop-tops and caravans and 20 per cent Windsor pop-tops and caravans, with the Coromal Element caravan range the best seller, accounting for around 70 per cent of all sales.

All, except the Chinese-sourced Coromal Navigator camper trailer, are built at Fleetwood's manufacturing HQ in Forrestfield, Perth.

In the absence of a Sunshine Coast Coromal and Windsor dealer, Fleetwood RV's display of both models will be represented at next month's 2014 Queensland Caravan Show by its Loganholme (Brisbane) and Bundaberg dealers.