This is just the start of things to come I think and I'm sure many other camping & caravanning outlets are struggling with the economic downturn. Although it's our love to get and and about in our units we all need more spending power to keep these struggling companies afloat during the recession. However, Im sure that most of us are struggling to use our units more often and with the price of fuel at the pumps which hasn't helped, we then have less spending power which is having a detrimental effect on the industry. I don't really want to go into the politics of the economy but the government really needs to do a 'U' turn now in order to for the leisure industry to survive which I'm sure if they did then the majority of these companies would be flourishing in 2-3 years time.
they have been pretty ropey for a while I reckon. Even before the economic downturn. Although we are all keen campers/caravanners I doubt we spend the money we used to.
I don't know that we need a U turn as such but we do need to turn into a few side roads to revitalise and nourish.
they all walked of the stands last night so i heard i think this is the end they were lucky to survive this long after the problems they had in 2009 also the people running discover are not new to going bust as they all came from the car trade remember dixon cars that went many years ago same people
We live round the corner from one of their outlets (used to be Dave Barrons) and had noticed that there were a lot of spaces on their forecourt compared to usual, even taking winter into account.
Didn't they buy out a whole load of dealerships a couple of years ago and then "restructure" them all away? We bought a used van from their Delamere branch a few months ago (must fish out the warranty) and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. The place was packed with customers too. But I guess it costs a lot of money to stock a forecourt with new vans.
Sad to hear of another dealer going out of business. I have myself come up against some deals they were offering customers which we couldn't get anywhere near. I guess they were just desparate to get whatever they could by offering deals which just did not make sense business wise.
Lets hope all involved can get jobs quickly in these times.
Quote: Originally posted by alan29 on 14/10/2011
Didn't they buy out a whole load of dealerships a couple of years ago and then "restructure" them all away? We bought a used van from their Delamere branch a few months ago (must fish out the warranty) and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. The place was packed with customers too. But I guess it costs a lot of money to stock a forecourt with new vans.
Exactly right!
They took over the highly successful Mendip caravans a few years ago and closed all three branches down within a year.
Sorry to all the people who have given them deposits but "good riddance" to their arrogant business manner. They were the ones who claimed they were going to restructure the British caravan industry for our benefit. Im afraid the only benefits have been to their directors!