I thought Swift and Bailey cornered most of the caravan market??!! They took on extra staff last year. We are led to believe that more people are returning/taking up caravanning. That's a shame- for those poor workers.
If the industry builds vans that are to heavy for family cars to tow and are to expensive for people to buy the likely result is to reduce your market and volumes that you can sell.
Nearly all new expensive cars are purchased by fleets or companies and then bought by private buyers after depreciation has reduced their cost.
The caravan industry relies on private buyers,and now with the economic situation these people are getting fewer.
Modern Labour Law enables business to lay off staff in quiet periods at little or no cost . Caravan makers work with troughs in demand . The current economic situation will make business look for every opportunity to reduce costs when appropriate to it . A flexible workforce is the ideal of all shades of Government and business . We have to get used to this or more factories will move to Eastern Europe . This is why Casual Employment Agencies appeared and prosper . If Swift `go` , my guess is that it will not collapse , it will do the Industry speciality of closing and re-opening for financial benefit to the owners , or , moving to Eastern Europe .
I agree with Orion50. Lovely vans but heavy and expensive! In todays climate need to be really careful with the pennies. Lots of people cutting down on food expenditure!!
I see it said the factory had expanded ? One of the older guys i used to work beside said..Son,if you see the painters coming in here or they expand this place well,its a sure sign we will be on the dole in a couple of months..how right he was.
Bad news, we ordered a new sprite/swift oct 09, finally got it April 10, n wonder the wait wws so long, also everytime we call them they are on holiday.
Whats al this about heavy vans ? the new Challenger is * Mass in Running Order: 1285 Kg (25.31 CWT) * Total User Payload: 135 Kg (2.66 CWT) * MTPLM **: 1420 Kg (27.97 CWT) Hardly top heavy , i think Swifr vans are very well made you dont see many ugly swift vans they are classy lookers and the quality is good but thats my opinion . xx Gill PS can anyone tell me these are not class and quality ?
Well, we love our Sterling and think the build quality is second to none, would have another Swift if they do something about the decal on the new ones.
Swift paid for a roundabout and a new entrance road to their factory from the A1079 Hull to York road near Dunswell.This must have cost them a few million £.Its not been open 6 months.
The CEO has given a good interview in the current MMM magazine.
The underlying problem is a big turn down in both the motor home and caravan sales this past year. They accept that Bailey's Alu Tech has impacted on caravan sales and are positioning themselves to be competitive against Baileys forthcoming venture into "their" motorhome territory.
They are going to have to work hard in a decreasing market against a formidable competitor and are rationalising their production both in range and volume to live with that situation. If they kept up churning out product that cant be sold at a profit all would quickly be lost and they are slimming down to avoid that.
My personal view is that the change in VAT forced a big surge in new builds to beat the deadline, a volume that could not ever last. And with the new inflated price carrying 20% VAT in a time of financial difficulty, those thinking of changing will wait and those thinking of starting in the hobby will forget it until their situation looks more secure.
Quote: Originally posted by Gillian 58 on 26/8/2011
Whats al this about heavy vans ? the new Challenger is * Mass in Running Order: 1285 Kg (25.31 CWT) * Total User Payload: 135 Kg (2.66 CWT) * MTPLM **: 1420 Kg (27.97 CWT) Hardly top heavy , i think Swifr vans are very well made you dont see many ugly swift vans they are classy lookers and the quality is good but thats my opinion . xx Gill PS can anyone tell me these are not class and quality ?
You don't think 25.31cwt unladen is heavy??????????
I dont think anyone was saying anything about quality or class
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Topic: Could this be another manufacturer to go
