Roma moves into motorhomes

After 85 years building custom caravans Melbourne-based Roma is planning a move into motorhome manufacturing.

Roma’s Brendon Palmerini, whose grandfather Victorio began building caravans named after his wife Roma in 1928, said the iconic Aussie company is currently developing a Roma motorhome in conjunction with a major Italian manufacturer that could be on sale in Australia by 2015.  

“Motorhomes are on the agenda,” Palmerini said.“ We’re doing our homework, we’re investigating the market as far as sales go.”

“We’re doing a lot of research and development over there (in Italy). We’re putting one together over there as we speak from a prototype point of view.”

Although he couldn’t supply specific details, the motorhome “will be backed up by an Italian motor company”, which would mean using Iveco or Fiat Ducato base vehicles.

Roma is already “financial partners” with the Tuscany-based Italian motorhome manufacturer, which also supplies the lightweight European ply furniture for some of its latest caravan models including the silver-clad Karisma (pictured).

“They’re a big player in Italy and also the same company has a big manufacturing plant in England and are about to get one running in Germany,” he said.

“These guys are pointing us in the right direction… We get to work out what goes right and what goes wrong with them, the way to build them properly, before we come here with them and manufacture them here.”

Although the motorhomes would initially be manufactured in Italy for the South African market, Roma plans to manufacture and sell them in Australia within the next “two to three years”.

“I think before we release them in Australia we’ll release them in South Africa first,” Palmerini said.

“It may never happen, it may just happen in Europe, and we’ll leave it at that. But I’d really like to bring them into Australia and manufacture them here.

“There are opportunities offshore here. We’ve got the oldest brand in the world; what are we doing just staying here, let’s get out here and see what’s available…”

Although Italian-built motorhomes like the PLA HS70 (pictured) are renowned for their curvaceous, automotive-influenced styling, Palmerini said any Roma-badged motorhome would need to have that distinct “Roma flair”.

Apart from some customer-driven van and bus conversions undertaken mostly during the 1990s, he said Roma has little experience in motorhome manufacturing, hence the joint venture with a proven European builder.

Despite a slowdown in local motorhome production last year, Palmerini remains optimistic about the future growth of the ‘motorised’ RV market, driven by baby boomers as well as younger buyers.

Like Jayco, he wants Roma to expand its range to meet the changing needs of RV buyers, particularly as they move from caravans to motorhomes in their later years.

“I’ve lost a few of my customers to the motorhome business,” he said.