Save local jobs, says Roma

One of Australia’s oldest caravan manufacturers, Roma Caravans, has called on the new Victorian Labour Government to support local manufacture “or else risk losing the industry to overseas interests”.

Roma wants to build the innovate Canadian-designed Alto pop-top caravan in a new Melbourne factory, but Mark Palmarini, whose grandfather Victorio founded Roma back in 1928, says it will require a funding commitment of around $6.5 million to commit to Australian manufacture.

“Roma has the rights to sell the Alto in all world right hand drive markets for the next 15 years,” said Palmarini, “which could create significant export opportunities if we can manufacture here.

“But the project involves a substantial investment and we already have expressions of interest from companies in Korea and Japan for us to build the Alto there.”

Roma initially plans to fully import the innovative Alto 1713 and 1723 models with their novel retractable aluminium and glass roofs, but says once sales volume exceeds 100 units a year in Australia it will be more economic to fully manufacture them here.

“We will see how serious the Government is about saving local jobs when car manufacturing shuts down completely in a year or two,” he said.

The previous Liberal Victorian Government had already committed funds to manufacturers, including $1 million for New Age Caravans, to encourage re-employment of workers in Melbourne’s north following the closure of Ford’s car manufacturing facility in 2016.