Brothers set to shake-up campervan market

Tuesday, 12 December 2006

Brothers set to shake-up campervan market

Following a five-year restraint of trade from Tourism Holdings Limited (THL), the sons of Maui Campervan founder can now start hiring out their radical new Ezy Rentals campervans.

With the launch of their ingenious ‘half-campervan, half-boat’ coming off the production line this week Ezy Rentals can become a serious contender in the campervan sector.

Tim Alpe, CEO of Ezy Rentals, says: “The restraint of trade has restricted our business activities in the campervan market but it has enabled us to grow a business that now operates over 1100 rental cars targeting the price sensitive traveller.”

Along with growing the Ezy car business from 35 to 1100 vehicles in five years, Ezy also became one of THL’s largest domestic sales agents for campervans, with gross annual sales in excess of $1.6 million per annum. With the restraint of trade now over, this referral business can now be transferred directly across to Ezy’s own campa fleet.

“With the restraint now lifted we are able to release our new campervan designs to market,” says Mr Alpe.

“Our family is synonymous with campervans and we can build our ‘half-boat, half-campervan’ version for a fraction of the price of our competitors’ vehicles, which creates cheaper rentals for tourists and greater resale value down the line.

“To make this happen we’re investing five million per annum for the next two years to continue the design evolution and building of these new generation “campas” in New Zealand,” he says.

The new “campas” can comfortably sleep three travellers. The campervan chassis is second hand but features a brand new fibreglass cabin designed and built by leading New Zealand boat designers Craig Loomes Design Group and boat builders Calibre Boats.

Mr Alpe says: “We discovered though our market research that many tourists would prefer to spend less and rent a slightly older campervan, but still want new modern living areas.
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“Rather than offering a high price to rent brand new campervans we searched for a way to develop a distinctive vehicle for a fraction of the cost.

“This led us to Craig Loomes Design and Calibre Boats and the decision to merge a good second hand chassis with a brand new fibreglass cabin.”

Renowned for his world-class luxury boat design skills, Craig Loomes jumped at the chance to develop a unique campervan using yacht cabin three-dimensional modelling.

As Andre Moltschaniwskyj of Craig Loomes Design Group points out: “The challenges associated with the design of the interior of a yacht are not dissimilar to those faced during the design of a campervan.”

Calibre Boats are building the 100 new “campas” at a rate of five per week at their boat building premises in west Auckland.

Each Ezy ‘campa’ features a large double bed, large single bed, toilet / shower, safe, dual gas cookers, Flat screen TV, DVD, CD, MP3 player and a plush interior.

The launch of the three-berth “campa” is the first of many innovative products that will be released by Ezy Rentals in the year ahead.

ENDS

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