Sydney flagship ramps up Avan sales

One of Australia’s best known RV brands, Avan, is celebrating the first birthday at its premier NSW dealership, located in the heart of western Sydney in North St Marys.

The transition from its previous location in Penrith to North St Marys brought new leadership to the popular Australian RV brand’s big new capital city dealer.

Avan Sydney is led by Dealer Principal Josh Edwards, who is very familiar with the caravan trade given his grandfather opened an RV business in the 1980s, and his father and uncle continue in the business with other well-known, established NSW RV dealerships.

We caught up with Edwards as he was co-ordinating the movement of his Avan RV display stock to Rosehill, in anticipation of the 2024 Caravan Camping Holiday Supershow at Rosehill Racecourse.

“My dad and uncle are still in the industry in the form of Parravans in Windsor and Heatherbrae," he explained. "My grandfather bought Parravans in the 1980s, and it’s been in the family ever since.”

It was his Parravans' experience that gave Edwards the opportunity to become well versed in all the key retail areas of the Australian RV industry.

“I did three years working at Parravans, starting in the workshop with repairs and service, then I went into sales, working my way up, before the opportunity with Avan arose,” he said.

The start-up process for establishing the new Avan Sydney outlet last year was quick.

“The opportunity was presented to us in January/February, and we hit the ground running with our first show as Avan Sydney at the Caravan Camping Supershow at Rosehill in April 2023. We took a lot of orders for new vans before we’d even officially opened the doors here at North St Marys,” he said.

Edwards said he's enjoying the fact that Avan has so many different RV models, from small campers and larger caravans to motorhomes, that appeal to a wide range of buyers.

The 12,000 square-metre site is big enough to have an example of almost every Avan and Golf model for buyers to browse. “It’s rare for us not to have the full range of Avans on display at any time,” he said.

While the Avan Sydney site is keeping his team busy, he said there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“We’re working hard to improve brand recognition in Sydney and in the broader NSW area. The plan in the long term is to expand into regional centres in NSW."

Previously a Holden dealership, as well as more recently an outlet for RVs, Avan Sydney has a large RV showroom, accessories display and outdoor RV display area, as well as internal workshop and detailing bay areas.

The service centre located onsite is primarily for Avan servicing and repairs, but also has the capacity to service other RV brands as well.

Avan Sydney is currently running some sharp finance deals as well as a clearance sale on 2023-plated stock, and is set to have a big display at the 2024 Sydney Supershow including some of the freshly updated 2024 models with latest 'Urban Range' interiors which were unveiled at the Melbourne Supershow in February.