Offline Campers expands factory at former Holden site

Holden's local car manufacturing days are well and truly over, but the spirit of the former home of General Motors Holden in Elizabeth, South Australia lives on, with a number of former 'Lion' employees now helping put together some of Australia's finest homegrown hybrid campers.

Speaking at the official opening of an expanded 4500sqm production facility for Offline Campers at the Lionsgate Business Park (the site where the last Commodore rolled off the production line in 2017), Offline founder Sam Reynolds said around a quarter of his workers were previously employed by Holden.

"We now have 22 staff today, I think half a dozen used to work here in the assembly line in the old Holden site," he said.

"They love the fact that they are now back here manufacturing vehicles, and it does feel a little bit like home."

The seven-year old manufacturer which started off building top-shelf tent trailers, has quadrupled its floorspace and refurbished its offices and showroom at the Lionsgate factory.

"We started with my wife and I just building trailers in our shed at home; just a normal household 6 x 9m shed," Reynolds recalled.

"And here we find ourselves today with a growing business, that is four times the size that we were a couple of months ago, as orders flow in from around Australia.

"The new facility we're in now allows us a properly designed production facility, and an assembly line that has a lot more flow and a lot more intention to the way it's designed, and we can find efficiency and improve quality and customer service through a better designed space."

A former defence industry mechanical engineer with a passion for the outdoors, Reynolds now offers five different Offline models, from the entry-level $26,500 Ryder LT toy hauler up to the top-spec 16ft Solitaire hybrid priced from $150,600.

The premium pricing is reflected in extensive use of expensive locally-manufactured components including steel and electronic fittings, plus the rare combination of off-road towability, design functionality, off-grid comforts and attention-to-detail, inherent across the range.

"Today we're highlighting a really good news story of local manufacturing in South Australia," said Caravan and Camping SA/NT president Peter White at the official opening.

"And this is what Australians do, you know. We take the risk, we have a go, and to have a local manufacturer produce this quality of product is just extraordinary. We should all be proud of it."

Offline is an outlier in setting up a factory in South Australia, when most Australian RV manufacturing occurs predominantly in Victoria, followed by Queensland and NSW.

The Adelaide business also competes in a niche market segment, joining the likes of Rhinomax and Patriot Campers in vying for a limited number of discerning buyers shopping in the 'top-notch, true blue' category.

Hit hard by the imports, it's a diminishing segment set to become even smaller, with NSW's Ultimate Campers which also builds no-compromise campers, currently trying to find a buyer for its business, which it values at $460,000.

“We’ve been listening to people who want to go further offroad and off-grid to meet their specific needs, whether that be the comfort of a shower, coffee machine and queen-sized bed or better dirt and dust protection for their dirt bikes while off the beaten track,” Reynolds explained.

“Because we take the time to adapt each camper to our customers’ needs, we have forward orders until 2027 and we’ve had to expand our manufacturing capabilities."

To reach more buyers, Reynolds has been attending a lot of shows around the country in recent times including some of the big east coast Supershows. Next stop is the new Melbourne show at Caulfield Racecourse.

Offline only has the solitary showroom at its factory, but promises to reimburse interstate buyers $1000 for flights or fuel, for those keen to head over to the City of Churches and place an order.

The Adelaide manufacturer competed at this year's Caravan of the Year awards in Victoria with its Solitaire 16 range-topper, but it was an unfair fight and it was pushed aside by two quarter-million dollar glamour-vans for the major awards.

The refurbished factory and showroom is located at 180 Philip Hwy, Elizabeth, and Offline welcomes anyone who'd like to pop by during opening hours (Monday to Friday from 9am-4pm) and see for themselves how some of Australia's most ridgy-didge RVs are built...

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