Paradise rolls out first delivery

The new owner of Paradise Motorhomes, the JB Caravans Group, is celebrating its first customer delivery at the luxury motorhome manufacturer’s new Gold Coast factory, after the business went belly up under the previous owners in late-2022.

Glenn and Annette Jarman from Sydney recently picked up their custom-built Iveco Daily-based Paradise Spark that’s currently advertised on the Paradise website with a starting price of $272,000.

However, it’s been a rollercoaster ride for the Sydney couple after deciding almost three years ago to sell their caravan and invest in a luxury motorhome.

“We owned a caravan and made a decision that we were going to change to a motorhome and after identifying the Paradise product and a design that suited us, we put the caravan up for sale,” Glenn recalled.

“When it was sold we ordered the motorhome with a seven-month delivery (time).”

However, the delivery date was pushed back repeatedly to the point where the couple had to re-book a road trip to Tasmania via the Spirit of Tasmania ferry five times.

“It was after two years that we finally went to pick it up and as we arrived on the Gold Coast the company went into administration. Ours was there (fully completed) minus a soap container and an aerial,” he said.

“It was not such a good situation for us! We had already made payments of between two-thirds and three-quarters of the price, and after that we made the decision that we weren’t going to continue with the purchase,” he said.

“[We were one] of 42 customers I believe [who made payments on an undelivered motorhome]... But as an unsecured creditor we will receive nothing,” he said.

“It was only when we received some positive comments regarding the new [Paradise] owners that we started communication with them and found out the option was there to buy the motorhome that had been designed for us but that we’d missed out on.”

Although the couple ended up with an additional payment to secure the motorhome from the new owners, they don’t regret their decision.

“Yes, it’s cost us more money... but we’ve been travelling in it now for a week and we believe it was the right decision,” he said.

“Our experience with purchasing the motorhome from the new owners has been all positive. We’ve been very happy.”

After picking it up last week the couple are doing a ‘shakedown run’ in Queensland before heading home to Sydney for the birth of their sixth grandchild.

“We’ve been learning how everything works and any minor issues we’ve found we’ve communicated with Paradise and they’ve been able to repair those,” he said.

Paradise Motorhomes Sales Manager Mark Rixon said the new factory will now finish off a number of other incomplete builds under new contracts, before ramping up production of new motorhomes and campervans for future customers.

“We’re starting to get more enquiries, and also planning to have on display a Liberation Deluxe at the upcoming Gold Coast show which will also be the first vehicle to be fully manufactured in the new factory, under the new ownership,” he said.

“We also plan to have stock available from around mid-year for customers to take delivery this year. We hope to have a range of models available, with the plan to ramp up production to one a week,” he said.