A HULL manufacturer is going Down Under in a bid to capitalise on a boom in the antipodean market.
Coachman Caravans has, for the first time, begun dipping its toes in the New Zealand and Australian markets following a boom in demand.
Over the past few years, New Zealand in particular has seen a stark increase in the number of people opting for caravan and motorhome holidays.
But although the younger generations is largely fuelling a boom in outback caravanning, it is the ageing population that is fuelling demand for a more British-style of caravan and motorhome.
Jim Hibbs, director at Coachman Caravans, said: "There are a lot of populated areas in Australasia, however much of Australia in particular is desert.
"The Australian market builds caravans designed for adventure in the outback, which is popular with the younger generations.
"But like all developed counties, it has an aging population, which wants lightweight European caravans that are competitively priced with a left-hand door, and these aren't supplied by the indigenous market."
Mr Hibbs said the move also coincided with pressures in Europe which were impacting on the industry as a whole.
"Touring caravan production is something of a British success story, and more than 90 per cent of all touring caravans sold in the UK are made here.
"However, there is now an over capacity in the European market as a whole.
"The industry has seen significant falling-off of caravan sales across Europe, particularly in the southern hemisphere in Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as the Netherlands.
"People are still caravanning but they are keeping their caravans for much longer than before.
"Here at Coachman our niche is quality and we work hard to supply the best caravans sold in the UK today.
"Now, we are very much geared to Australian and New Zealand specifications and are gearing up to seize those new opportunities."
Coachman has now signed importers in both countries, and is currently customising its existing models, for example modifying the chassis to a slightly higher spec than required in Europe, and changing the road lights to meet Australian regulations.
The interiors are then modified once they reach the overseas market, however, Mr Hibbs said Coachman was looking to exploit opportunities by launching models purely for new markets.
"We are now seriously looking at doing the whole job from Hull, building an entire spec, so we are able to supply to two markets – the UK and overseas," he said.
"The strength of the dollar against the pound can cover the freight costs, and on the basis we're not going to see a revival in the UK market for several years, we've started to do what I guess the Government wants us to do and grow the economy through exports."
Though Mr Hibbs said the move was an exciting time for the company, he continues to call on the Government to accept its current growth plan is failing manufacturing as a whole.
He said: "The word austerity is used far too much by the Government, particularly George Osborne and Mervyn King.
"We definitely need to see growth back on Britain's agenda and instead of austerity we need a growth theme."
Since its formation following the Second World War, East Yorkshire's caravan industry has always been subject to cyclical peaks and troughs and redundancies are unfortunately commonplace throughout the industry.
Mr Hibbs said Coachman Caravans endeavoured to protect its 150-strong workforce from redundancies with flexible working patterns where possible.
"We have a very loyal workforce who work very hard," he said. "Many of them started work here at the age of 16 and we have a lot of employees who have been here for 25 years.
"Now they have families of their own, children and a mortgage and as a family business we do everything we can to protect them.
"We are not run as a PLC so when things are difficult, our employees are very much in our utmost thoughts.
"As a result, we offer flexible working so when there is extra work, we offer our staff overtime and when there is less work we go on to short-time shifts."
