One-stop camper shop opens

Camper trailer enthusiasts in Melbourne’s south-east now have a new ‘one stop’ shop to visit when it comes time to upgrade.

Formerly the Melbourne East franchise for Johnno’s Camper Trailers, the 500 sq.m showroom at 2 Newman St, Ringwood recently changed its name to the Melbourne Camper Trailer Centre, adding a wider range of Australian-built campers under the Cub, Armadillo, Customline, Trayon and Traytek brands.

MCTC co-owner Kellie Casey, said the move to a multi-brand outlet was the result of changing business and customer needs.

“We found that people would walk in the door and more often than not want something we couldn't offer them selling one brand,” Casey said.

“Car yards do it, caravan yards do it, let’s do it,” she said. “We do have the one theme; they’re all Australian-made.”

The MCTC will be the sole Victorian outlet for Armadillo and Customline tent trailers, which are both now built under the one roof in Queensland, as well as Queensland’s Trayon/Traytek, which specialize in premium slide-on campers.  

In Victoria, Cub Campers has another retail outlet but over the other side of town in Melbourne's north.

The move follows a recent change to Johnno's Campers' distributor/franchise model, which has resulted in more sales and rental outlets in Victoria.

However, she said there was “no bad blood” resulting from the decision to split with Johnno’s, and the MCTC will continue to provide service and support to existing Johnno’s owners as well as new customers.

She said her fleet of Johnno’s ex-rental campers will soon be sold off to make way for a new range of Customline soft-floor rental campers.

A handful of new campers including a range-topping Armadillo Arma XD, Customline Adventure, Cub Escape, and a slide-on Trayon mounted on Casey’s own BT-50 ute, are already on display at the Ringwood showroom.

However, in order to showcase the full range the plan is to relocate to a larger showroom later this year, probably “further south” in the Dandenong region.

The Melbourne Camper Trailer Centre will also continue to offer a range of accessories from popular brands including Evakool, CGear, Joolca, Darche and OzTent.

The MCTC is the third multi-brand camper distributor to emerge recently, following Track Trailer’s new Outback HQ in Melbourne and The Dirt Camper Trailer Sales & Hire in South Australia, which sells Rhinomax, Stockman and 3DOG campers.