Trakmaster buys Pioneer Campers

Ararat’s Gason Industries, which in mid-2016 bought established Victorian custom caravan manufacturer Trakmaster, has now added Pioneer Campers to its expanding off-road RV range.

The latest purchase took place in early May after a short courtship with Victoria-based Actco-Pickering. This followed the Dandenong-based metal fabricators’ announcement in early March that it wanted to divest itself of the  distraction of its RV division to concentrate on its core corporate and Government business.

Under the new ownership, Pioneer’s existing clamshell Mitchell and Wilpena and hard-floor Onyx and Longreach ultimately will be beefed up before being re-introduced as a sub-brand of Trakmaster later. The entry-level Pioneer Argyle might also return as a new bread and butter line.

Gason's long-term plan is for Pioneer models to share some scaled-down suspension components, axles, wheels and tyres with their new Trakmaster caravan siblings, although the first production models under the new ownership will largely be unchanged to fill Pioneer’s existing 2018 order bank.

Pioneer campers will now be around 80 per cent built in Gason’s Ararat plant, with their metal fabrication, cutting, folding and powder-coating carried out there, before final assembly at Trakmaster’s existing Bayswater manufacturing plant.

Pricing for the new Pioneer by Trakmaster range is still being finalised.

To make room, Trakmaster will close its current under-cover storage facility adjacent to its caravan factory, although outside storage will still be offered to customers and casuals.

Ron Larkin, who is General Manager of Caramax (Gason’s RV division), said Pioneer was a perfect fit for the company’s expanding RV business.

“Pioneer is a respected camper trailer manufacturer whose beginnings in Western Australia go back almost as far as Trakmaster’s in Victoria, while Atco-Pickering, like Gason, is an AS90001-accredited quality manufacturer, so there is excellent synergy between both brands and the quality of their manufacture,” he said.

“The two ranges blend seamlessly and we will now be offering off-road enthusiasts a full range of Australian-manufactured products from basic camper trailers to large off-road luxury caravans.”

The acquisition of Pioneer is good news for Trakmaster’s parent company, Gason, as it will lead to an increase in the company’s current workforce of 150.

The 16ft 10in Extreme caravan chassis, suspension arms, water tank covers, mudguards and some powder-coated items for Trakmaster caravans are already manufactured in Ararat.

Larkin said he had also had approaches from existing Pioneer dealers and it's likely that the first appointment will be in Western Australia.

At this stage there are no plans to change Trakmaster’s factory-direct sales policy, although the appointment of subsequent Pioneer dealers may open the way for shared Pioneer-Trakmaster service facilities around Australia.