New Age Caravans turns the corner

A recent slowdown in caravan sales has helped big-selling Melbourne manufacturer New Age reduce its frustratingly long wait times for a new caravan by around half, down from a high of 18 months or longer during the COVID 'peak'.

Australia's love affair with caravanning reached new highs in 2022, as almost 50,000 locally built and imported RVs hit the market and Aussies lapped up local travel options due to restrictions on overseas travel. That's around 90,000 more new RVs on the road in the space of two years if you count 2021 sales, boosting RV registrations across the country above 800,000.

Like many other Australian caravan manufacturers New Age struggled to keep up with demand as it battled constant disruptions to production and staffing, not to mention rising costs from supply chain issues.

"The couple's market is still strong but we're seeing some weakness in the family caravan market probably driven by (rising) interest rates," New Age Caravans' Managing Director Chris Polites told caravancampingsales during a recent interview at the Walkinshaw-owned New Age production facility in Epping, Victoria.

"COVID was tough for a lot of manufacturing businesses; the availability of labour was impacted by all the other job opportunities available including in the gig economy, while there was also increased competition among all the manufacturers for staff.

"The disruption in deliveries (on the supply side of things) and pricing disruption were two really big shocks to the system, so it was a hard time for the business which unfortunately meant we had to delay deliveries to customers," Polites explained.

"But the business got through it and our staff levels are more normalised now. We're currently at full labour capacity which is about 320 people and we haven't been at that level for three years."

That means a buyer placing an order today for one of the latest New Age models can be confident of delivery in the first half of 2024, although the Melbourne manufacturer is still playing catch-up in some cases, with the last remaining 2021-22 orders not expected to be cleared before the end of 2023.

There will also be some overlap on old and new orders as the first of the 2024 models start to trickle out from the production line later this year.

"We got out to 16 to 18 months (wait time on deliveries) during the height of COVID as a function of a lot of people coming into the caravanning market when they couldn't go on cruises or head to Bali," Polites explained.

"We had to push out delivery times as manufacturing was disrupted by lockdowns which extended wait times even further.

"We still do have some ongoing frustration from buyers and the communication is always hard; they're sitting at home wondering why they can't get an update, but unfortunately during that time things were changing by the day so you can't constantly give them an update. We didn't know ourselves what was going on."

"There is still some frustration out there as we deliver the last of those orders, but being able to work with our new customers on more consistent time frames is beneficial to everybody."

Quicker deliveries coming

With production and staffing levels now back to 'normal' he expects wait times to be reduced even further.

"That's better for our business too as we're able to match production costs with revenue which is key to manufacturing," he explained.

"When you can't do that, that's when you get into that house builder-type cycle where they're tied to a fixed contract and the costs go beyond that and then they get into trouble... it's a similar type of issue if our order bank gets too far out."

As one of Australia's biggest RV manufacturers, the New Age production facility in Melbourne's north is geared up to produce around 2000 caravans and camper trailers annually.

"We're a large employer, one of the largest manufacturers in the area and we're very proud of being Australian made and proud that we employ 320 people out here, but that does mean that production needs to stay at a certain level (to be sustainable)," he said.

Dealer shake-up

The New Age brand's recent return to caravan shows is also an encouraging sign for its nationwide network of dealers, some of which have been forced to switch from single- to multi-brand outlets as supply dried up during the COVID caravan boom.

"Some of our dealers remain solely New Age while others have chosen to take on other brands which we're comfortable with," Polites aid.

"COVID was also a difficult time for our dealers -- they had a lot of demand from customers who expected quick deliveries -- and that's hard when you're dealing with a single brand that's sold out for 18 months... We don't want their salespeople to go off and do other things; we want them to remain busy and for the dealerships to remain profitable, so we encourage dealers to make the best decision for their business.

"With our order bank out to 18 months it would have been duplicitous for us to be at the shows and try to sell to buyers who wouldn't receive their vans until a long time in the future so we decided not to do that..."

Recent dealer changes include New Age's Melbourne dealer re-locating to a new Epping, Victoria address, and also selling Urban, Concept and Newland caravans, as well as Polaris ATVs, under the new name of The Touring Hub. There's also a new 'satellite site' for the display of New Age caravans at Melbourne car dealer Knox Mitsubishi.

More caravans, less campers

Displayed at the Brisbane Supershow alongside the latest Road Owl family van, Polites said the Limited Edition Walkinshaw camper trailer introduced earlier this year had been "very well received", although only a relatively small number of the New Age campers along with the latest $50,990-plus Wayfinders are expected to be built.

"It's a very competitive end of the market; there's a lot of imports and a lot of choice in that smaller, hybrid camper and camper trailer end of the market, so it's important to differentiate yourself," he said.

"(The Wayfinder is) a fantastically designed product, it's quite unique in the way it works, and performs like a Walkinshaw should. We'll probably do some more in the future but our business is probably more geared towards caravans at this stage."

After recent makeovers of its Road Owl and Manta Ray caravans, Polites said buyers can expect other New Age models to get the 'wave of the Walkinshaw wand' before mid-2024.

"Next year we'll focus on the development of our top end range. We're looking at giving the Desert Rose a more off-grid experience," he said.

New Age will also be "experimenting with different materials", and is planning to make the Big Red slide-out caravan model "best in class".

Business as usual

Despite the rumours it's 'business as usual' at the New Age factory, notwithstanding recent legal action involving New Age owners the Walkinshaw Group which included a wind-up order from a supplier that Polites said was the result of an "unfortunate" communication breakdown, and was resolved before it made it to the Victoria Supreme Court in March this year.

"They sent us a notice over the Christmas break and we didn't respond to it in time, and once we were alerted to it we fixed it up right away and we're still on good terms with that supplier, and we like to treat all our suppliers with respect," he said.

"That's now been dismissed but it was probably not a great look. We appreciate there was some confusion in the market but that's well behind us now."

Then there's the drawn-out Federal Court action that involves Walkinshaw making a substantial claim against the previous owner of New Age Caravans, with the case now scheduled to go to court in April 2024.

"Business is trading well and it's nice to have some predictability without having to deal with shocks to the system on a weekly basis," he said.

The New Age difference

Polites also poured cold water over the perception that New Age vans are over-priced compared to some of their cheaper Melbourne-built rivals, arguing that their many 'hidden' benefits outweigh any perceived pricing premium.

"When we price a van we make sure it's a fair price in respect to what it costs us to build but also what else is in the market, and we're very comfortable on where our vans are positioned," he said.

"What you get with a New Age van is the backing of the Walkinshaw Group, and the benefits of our design, engineering, resource and production capabilities, along with three years' warranty on everything and a national network of committed dealers -- not everyone can offer that.

"I think we deserve to be at that end of the market. I appreciate there are cheaper vans and alternatives out there but I think we can demonstrate a better product," he said.

"We've also used the time in COVID to develop the range and you'll see the MY24 models are a real step up and we'll continue to roll out the changes."

According to Polites the latest New Age vans also stack up against those from major cross-town rival Jayco which builds five and half times more RVs than New Age does every year and offers a very similar and competitively priced range of models.

"I think our proposition is slightly different to Jayco; we offer more personalization and customization in our product range, and I think we focus more on some areas like internal fit and finish," he said. "We don't pretend to compete with Jayco on price, I think we offer something slightly different."