Moving to new spaces
Caravan business sets up new Townsville-based location
It’s a fairly big step into Townsville and Far North Queensland DALE DAVEY
A FAMILY owned business which started retailing caravans at Yatala six years ago is expanding to Townsville as part of plans to manufacture and sell caravans around the country.
Caravan HQ has leased a 1700sq m office and industrial warehouse in Ingham Rd, Mount Louisa, where it is establishing a showroom and workshop.
The business’s Townsville dealer principal, Dale Davey, said Townsville would be its North Queensland base and part of its growing national footprint.
“The vision here is to be able to service our Far North Queensland customers a bit better and provide the facilities not just for sales but also to have accessories and a fully maintained workshop for everything from servicing to major insurance repair work,” Mr Davey said.
“It’s a fairly big step into Townsville and Far North Queensland.
“We believe we can service our customer network from here rather than South East Queensland and we definitely think there’s a market for further sales in this area as well.”
Caravan HQ retails brands including Royal Flair, Network RV Caravans, Van Cruiser Caravans, Highline Caravans and also manufactures and sells On The Move Caravans after acquiring that business last year. Mr Davey said they were also looking to position themselves in the motorhome market.
They operate two dealerships in Victoria, are building a facility in Wollongong and have plans for facilities in South Australia and Western Australia.
Mr Davey said they would employ five people in Townsville but could grow that to 10 if market conditions continued to be buoyant.
He said while the pandemic had led people to buy caravans and holiday closer to home, they were yet to see the market return to international travel.
“We are finding people don’t want to make that move. They’ve realised Australia has a lot to offer. Everyone expected the market to drop off but it hasn’t, it’s still growing,” Mr Davey said.
Knight Frank agents Paul Dury and Mark Fitzgerald said having a national business like Caravan HQ show confidence in the city was “tick for Townsville”.
Caravan HQ is looking to open its Townsville operation in January.