Supreme showroom drives demand

One of Melbourne’s biggest caravan manufacturers is aiming to boost annual production by 25 percent in 2012, following the opening of an impressive new showroom and service centre in Melbourne’s west.

Supreme Caravans’ director Frank Prosenik said the purpose-built Melbourne sales centre which opened in January is helping to attract more buyers to the brand, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011.

“This year we’re hoping to produce up to a 1000 units; we did 800 last year, so we’re just trying to raise the bar a bit more,” said Prosenik at the new dealership located just off the Hume Highway in Craigieburn.

Located on a four acre site the new showroom is "around 10 times larger" than the one it replaced, which was located a few minutes down the road in Fawkner.

“We were in the old place about 25 years, we just outgrew the place,” Prosenik said.

The main building houses a large indoor showroom with around 10 display vans, sales and admin offices, and a cafeteria and bar with seating for around 20 people.

Next door is a spacious service and pre-delivery area with drive-through entry and exit, which also includes a retail shop which will offer parts and accessories.

The expansive outdoor area out front has most examples of Supreme’s 11-model range on display along with a diverse range of used vans and camper trailers, mostly trade-ins, also for sale.

Prosenik said the new dealership was designed to provide a more relaxed environment for buyers involved in the extensive decision-making required when purchasing a custom-built caravan.

“One of the aims was to make it look like a ‘Benz or a BMW dealer,” he said. “Instead of just discussing prices and layouts out in the yard we bring them in here and make a nice coffee in a relaxed environment and they can sit here all day if they like and discuss amongst themselves.”

Prosenik said Supreme Caravans had no intention of diversifying into camper trailer or motorhome production to boost market share. Instead, the company would remain focussed on offering a wide variety of traditional-style touring and rough-road caravans, which currently range in price from around $50,000 for the entry-level Classic up to $140,000 for a fully optioned, slide-out Territory.

He said Supreme has plans to release a more off-road capable Getaway model with “cutaway back” later this year. It's also in negotiations to become the Australian distributor for Camp-let, a Danish company that produces a range of lightweight tent trailers popular in Europe.