How a Valleys boy turned his hobby into a successful business

WHEN Berwyn Pearce was a young boy he found himself sobbing outside the family home because his parents had sold the family camper van.

At the time he had no idea he would one day have his own fleet.

It was a Volkswagen T2 bay window orange and white camper that stole his heart.

Berwyn grew extremely fond of it on the day trips and weekends away his family would spend chugging around Wales.

The freelance actor and businessman, 30, said his father, Vic, would put up with damp and freezing commutes to Caerphilly every day in the camper van for the pure excitement and enjoyment Berwyn and his brother, Garan, had from owning it.

Now Berwyn, from Pontypridd, has launched his own business hiring out the iconic vehicles to tourists travelling around Wales.

He said of his first VW: “Mam and Dad had bought it for a trip around Europe long before my brother and I came along.

“I grew up with it as part of the family hence the tears the day Dad sold it.

“But I didn’t give up. For the following seven years I kept nagging until Mam and Dad gave in.

“When I was 15, Dad and I drove down to Cardiff to pick up a Navy T2 Bay window camper.

“It was love at first sight, although I was never quite sure about the colour.”

When they bought the van the plan was to use it to simply make memories, but they had to restore it first.

The brothers would spend hours with their father in the garage re-laying the floor, spraying the hubs and playing about with the engine.

“One Christmas when all our friends were getting PS2s my brother and I got a new four-headed exhaust for the van,” added Berwyn.

“Both of us learnt to drive in it, and we were soon whipping around Wales on new adventures.”

This included Garan whizzing the van off to his rugby matches.

In fact, Berwyn said he thinks half of Beddau youth team ended up in the back of it most weeks.

The pair would skip classes to go for drives up the mountain – one of their mates even fell out of it once on a late night trip to McDonalds when their mates were packed into the back.

Much to Berwyn’s delight, when he was 18 he was handed the keys and the van was his.

But, sadly, the relationship didn’t last long.

He said: “Unfortunately, the thing caught fire as I was driving between Cilfynydd and Abercynon.

“Once again I was brought to tears as I watched my baby burst into flames before me. I had to put my money into drama school and not into another T2, but I never stopped dreaming of my next van.”

But in 2015 the dream finally came true. Berwyn and his partner, Helen Phillips, are freelance actors and he said they have both found themselves having to do temporary work between acting jobs.

It was during the gaps in Berwyn’s calender that he started to think about following his passion for Volkswagen campers and turning it into a business.

His plan was to buy a nice T2 and hire it out for the odd weekend or wedding, but then he went on a trip to New Zealand which changed his mind.

The couple hired what they described as a “beaten up” Toyota camper van to travel the country in – Berwyn said this was how a lot of people choose to see New Zealand.

“It was perfect for exploring the beautiful, breathtaking country,” Berwyn added.

“It has such a variation of landscapes in relatively short drives.

“We would be climbing a mountain in the morning, visiting one of its major cities in the afternoon and having a fire on a stunning beach by the evening.

“But driving around I couldn’t help thinking that we have exactly the same thing to offer in Wales - the only difference is, tourism is the number one industry in New Zealand.”

Berwyn thinks Wales should be capitalising more on what we have to offer as a nation.

“Especially in the South Wales Valleys,” he said. “Where we are still scared by the closure of our pits. This changed the game for us.”

In attempt to put the Valleys back on the map, Berwyn and Helen bought a van and had it converted. By January 2016, the business Taffi Campers was launched.

They put a Welsh stamp on the name, which was inspired by Berwyn’s friendship group who have jokingly called themselves “the Taffia” for years.

Since then they have invested in another van and each has been named after the children of their closest friends – Will and Mogs.

As well as getting another van on the road within two years, the focus is also on how to encourage people to spend more