Keith Gooden
Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden, and of course our resident expert, Motorhome Matt Sims. In this episode, we reflect on new industry product trends. Matt catches up with Guy Robinson, the organiser of the Vanlove Fest, and Francis Doyle from the newly launched website www.findmyleisurevehicle.co.uk. But you don’t want to hear from me – you want to hear from our expert! It’s motorhome Matt Sims.
Matt Sims
Hi, Keith, how are you?
Keith Gooden
I’m fine, thanks very much. I’ve been travelling up and down the motorway recently. And since doing this podcast, I notice the vehicles on the road and there are some beauties heading down to the southwest on the motorways. I suppose you must be responsible for some of them. So what’s happening in the world?
Matt Sims
Well, you mean motorhomes, I assume when you say vehicles. Sorry about that. It’s weird, isn’t it? Once you start thinking about them, they’re just everywhere. They dominate the roads.
Keith Gooden
They do absolutely dominate the roads.
Matt Sims
Holding you up!
Keith Gooden
Well, that’s the thing – people in the overtaking lane. We should just all be nice and kind to each other on the road.
Matt Sims
We should. I always say if you see a motorhome in the outside lane, it’s probably either being driven by a dealer or someone who’s selling it. It’s generally true you’ll find me in the outside lane. It’s good for them, get them hot, get them warmed up. The bank holiday’s coming up. That’s going to mean the roads are even busier with motorhomes, campervans and caravans. So lots of people are going to be heading off and they’re busy getting ready for those trips.
New products at That Leisure Shop
Matt Sims
Our shop is going Gangbusters. It’s fantastic. Hundreds and hundreds of new products coming in. We’re putting the team through their paces, doing all the photography for all these new products. And what’s really interesting this year, more than I’ve ever seen, is how much more – can I say, John Lewis? – the product is. It’s far less, dare I say, Lidl or Aldi style, where you’re paying a lower price for it, and you know it’s not going to last forever. But the products coming through, some of them are very high priced, but the quality and calibre of them is really good. Very stylistic.
In fact, we’ve just recorded a podcast with some friends of mine, we’re calling it, ‘Less Camping, More Glamping.’ And that’s really interesting – we get a take on how we think camping is evolving. And far more luxury holidays, just as the audience has changed that want to take part in this wonderful pastime being in a motorhome or a tent, or some kind of pod or bell tent. That’s been really exciting to see. So the shop is going to be super busy this year online and in-store.
Keith Gooden
Are those manufacturers moving into your world? Have they always been making this stuff and it just hasn’t been bought? Or are these new entrants?
Matt Sims
That’s a great question. So a bit of both really. Something that has changed across Europe is the way that the manufacturers and wholesalers have been bought up. There’s been a couple of big European brands that have gone through. One, in particular, has bought, I was told, 43 brands. And so they brought them all under one roof and they are now accessible to us.
And we’re sourcing products from Spain, Italy, France and Scandinavian countries, as well as the stuff that comes from China, of course. But a lot of these higher-priced products are really beautiful. And you’ll see them soon in the shop – some stunning chairs from brands like Crespo and Narbonne. They’ll thank me for giving them a plug.
But honestly, they are fantastic. Chairs that just dry instantly, because they don’t absorb any water. Super comfortable, incredibly light and really fold flat. And some chairs that just don’t look like something you’d see on a campsite. You’d expect to see them on a luxury hotel deck. They’re just stunning.
So we’ve committed to them. And so there are new entrants to the market, and I think also COVID has given manufacturers a chance to reinvent what they’re doing. They’ve had some time to get new products designed, and you’ll start seeing them in the UK over the coming months, I hope.
Keith Gooden
And what about the traditional motorhomers and campers who have kept you in business over the years. When they’re seeing these new entrants, is there a feeling of a bit of resentment? Or is everybody happy that the industry is developing the way it is?
Matt Sims
I’d love to think everyone was happy. The big thing people don’t like is the price of motorhomes and caravans. They have just gone through the roof. We’re seeing huge ‘COVID markups,’ it gets referred to as. And people say, ‘Well, I’ll wait then till the price comes down.’ I have to tell you, it’s not going to come down. Dealers have bought the stock at an inflated price. They will be selling it at this perceived inflated price, which is just going to be the new normal price.
So I’ve been quoted before saying, ‘When’s a good time to buy a motorhome? Now. Just go and do it.’ Don’t wait for that deal at Christmas, because it probably won’t happen. And, of course, availability of stock – we keep referring to this – is still a challenge for new and used, because there is such massive demand. So I think for those who are long-established with a motorhome or caravan, they’re probably sitting pretty because theirs has gone up in price.
The new product is take it or leave it, I suppose. If you don’t want to spend £200 on a chair, then don’t. You can still buy one for £30. But even then, those prices are going up as well. We’re seeing huge cost increases as a result of shipping costs going up. Getting a container to the UK from China is not £2,000 anymore. Friends of mine are reporting £20,000 to bring a shipping container in.
That’s easing a bit at the moment as the supply chain recovers. But there are still some real challenges out there with the supply chain, particularly in China, Shanghai Port and so on. There are some real problems going on over there, which we all pay for.
Keith Gooden
And of course, we’ve got the added disruption, apart from the pandemic, of the war in Ukraine as well. That’s adding to the economic woes that might not directly impact the business, but indirectly, moving goods is affected, isn’t it?
Matt Sims
Definitely, yes. And the production of vehicles including cars. VW Group, which is Audi, Porsche and Seat, stop production this month because elements of the wiring loom for all of those vehicles they make are made in Ukraine. And the factory is closed, so they’re unable to produce. I don’t know how many cars are not going to be made, and the same with vans. And that of course has an impact on the wider supply across motorhome chassis as well. The chassis just aren’t being built. So that will have a knock-on effect down the line.
So yes, lots of challenges going on, with demand increasing. There’s still uncertainty and a lack of confidence in the consumer to fly for a foreign holiday, which is great for British tourism. British tourism is having a massive boom and so it deserves it. And long may that last.
We’ve just come back from North Wales. We were in Anglesey and it’s just stunning. I didn’t realise, and I’d never been there, but the drive back through the Shropshire hills, it’s just unbelievable. At times we could have been in Italy, easily. The sun was out, the scenery was – you just couldn’t capture it and do it justice on a phone or a camera. It was just stunning. So yes, lots of people heading off in their motorhomes. Lots of reasons to get away in one, with the bank holiday weekend coming up.
Glastonbury Festival in a motorhome
Lots of festivals are happening as well. I was chatting to a gentleman this morning who wanted to book a motorhome with our hire company, Motorhome Holiday Company. He wants to go to Folk Festival in July. Glastonbury is the big one, of course, just down the road from us. We are half an hour as the crow flies from the site. And that’s a really busy one for us.
And we’ve still got some availability if I can give it a plug. We’ve had a few people that never got a ticket to camp in a motorhome. So they’re not going to progress and pay the balance. So we’ve got some late availability as a result. So if you are going to Glastonbury and you fancy doing it in a motorhome, or your motorhome’s fallen through, then speak to the team and they’ll happily, I’m sure, be able to sort something out for you.
Keith Gooden
There’s no problem then with you renting for festival-goers because I think people’s attitudes, particularly towards Glastonbury are very outdated. They think it’s the way it was in the early ’80s. It’s developed a lot. It is much more of a middle-class pastime now, isn’t it?
Matt Sims
Yes, absolutely. Well, in the early ’90s, I remember trying to climb the fence. In fact, there was a group of us trying to dig underneath it. But yes, it’s not what it used to be at all. Glastonbury festival, like many, carries a stigma. The reality is it costs a fortune to go. It’s you and me, Keith. It’s that middle class – well, me. For you, it’s a trip down memory lane. You’ll be watching the main stage and all those old-timers that they keep booking. I can’t believe it. But anyway, that’s my view. I’ll be at one of the sub-stages watching the up-and-coming acts.
Keith Gooden
Of course, we will.
Matt Sims
Absolutely. But yes, festivals are very different. They’re all very different. But the whole festival industry – it is great to see it back to life. And so many friends of mine work in that industry, as I did years ago. And it’s brilliant to see it come back to life post-COVID.
And festivals have evolved. They have become very, very family-friendly. Lots of camp festivals and lots of Van Life festivals have cropped up, and they are places you can happily and safely take your children. Years ago I would have been concerned about taking my kids to some festivals. And I still would, especially the bigger ones, because you’re worried they’re going to run off.
Keith Gooden
Just wander off.
Matt Sims
Yes, and you lose them. And trying to find them in a huge number of people is going to be tricky. But there are so many of them. There are lots of smaller ones and they’ve become very, very family-friendly. A great place, a great weekend to take kids to and take your parents to. I’ll take you, Keith.
Keith Gooden
Thank you very much, as long as it’s in a decent motorhome. Because I’ve had bad experiences with people passing through my tent when I haven’t been in it and using it for a toilet, but that was many, many years ago.
Matt Sims
That’s awful.
Keith Gooden
I don’t think it happens anymore. I think it’s much better organised.
Matt Sims
I hope not.
Keith Gooden
It is awful, and you do wonder to yourself, ‘What sort of person does that? ‘ And then you think, ‘Hmm…’
Matt Sims
I have to say, if I’d realised it was your tent, I would have moved on.
Vanlove Fest with Guy Robinson
Matt Sims
During the last weekend in May of 2022, a brand new campervan and motorhome festival took place here in the UK. I caught up with festival organiser, Guy Robinson, to find out a little more. Guy, hi and congratulations on your very first Vanlove Fest. Tell us, how did it go?
Guy Robinson
It was a phenomenal weekend – a great success all around. We had about 250 motorhomes on the runway, 500 people. The feedback has been beyond anything we expected. It just honestly couldn’t have gone better. Having run events for the last 27 years, we’re especially proud of this one.
Matt Sims
That’s awesome. So it was at Elvington. You said on the runway – it was at an airfield, right?
Guy Robinson
It was at Elvington Airfield in York, yes. One of the big parts of this for us was absolutely making the van the star of the show. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re a YouTuber or a casual motorhomer or even just curious about the scene. It was about getting people to really enjoy different kinds of motorhomes and campervans.
So my vision was to create this long line of motorhomes parked down the runway. So we ended up herringboning all these motorhomes and campervans down both sides of the runway, facing up towards the stage. And it was 0.6 of a mile in the end. So it’s a hell of a walk from one end to the other, especially when you’re in a hurry.
Matt Sims
Brilliant. I’m particularly loving – you see on social media – the parade at the end of the show that you did on Sunday, where they were all streaming past the camera. That was fantastic.
Guy Robinson
Yes, that came about on Thursday when I was chatting to the team. I said, ‘It will be really fun if we do a massive Eastbound and Down convoy type of thing to leave the runway. It was one of the concerns we had – there was actually another event at the airfield after us. So we were like, ‘We need to make sure they’re all out on time.’
So part of this was, ‘If we could get them to all leave at the same time, it would just be perfect and create this amazing footage.’ So we had about 120 vans left at that point. A few people had gone home, who I think have massive FOMO now for leaving a little bit too early.
Matt Sims
I bet.
Guy Robinson
Yes, we turned them all around four abreast on the runway and ran everybody down the runway at about 15 miles an hour, led by our very own Adria campervan. It looked amazing. It was a real moment.
Matt Sims
It was superb. I’d never seen anything like it before. It was a real highlight of the event. And during the event, you had entertainment there, plenty for people to do. Tell us what actually goes on at Vanlove Fest.
Guy Robinson
We built ours slightly differently because the stage was the focal point for our show. So all the vans faced up towards the stage. And then we have partners that we work with through the core business coalition, which is Comedy Store and Ministry of Sound. So we got those guys involved, some incredible comedians, and Utah Saints came along. Really relevant for the audience we had as well, as plenty of people who remember or maybe don’t remember raving bass but were certainly old enough to have been there.
So yes, we had that going on. And then some really great talks during the day as well, all on the stage. One thing as well, we wanted to make sure everybody could experience it no matter whether they wanted to sit in their van or come by the stage. And we also wanted to plan in case it was wet, which we were very lucky because it wasn’t. It was a gorgeous day out there.
But we pushed everything out on FM. So every fan with an FM radio could stay in their van and listen to it. So all the music, all the DJs and all the talks were all pushed out on an FM transmitter so everybody could be involved the whole time. They didn’t need to walk the half-mile to get up to the stage if they couldn’t be bothered.
Matt Sims
So you’re making plans for next year’s event, and we’re going to have another conversation about next year once it is starting to take a bit more shape. But what can you tell us about Vanlove Fest 2023?
Guy Robinson
It is going to be bigger. That is for definite. We will have a bigger licence and more vans, but we will still run on a limited capacity. It will be probably about 500 vans we welcome this time, so twice as many as last time. What we want to make sure is that core personal experience stays the same for the overall event.
So this isn’t a job to see how many vans we can fit on one runway for sure. Those tickets will be on sale hopefully within the next two weeks. We’re just confirming the date. It’s going to be sometime in June, that is definite. They will go on sale with some of our vanbassadors.
Part of this project was to see how many things we could attach the word, ‘Van,’ to. So the highlight of the entertainment was vanaoke, believe it or not. You had to be there and not mispronounce it because it sounds like something totally different. That will be announced, with probably Neil and Emma from Urban Van Life on their YouTube channel with a couple of other guys.
Fingers crossed, assuming the demand is there, we are also looking at a southern venue. One thing is finding the right venue to make sure that the core experience that the customers had on the last show, they have that same thing if we go somewhere else with it as well. Certainly, I could do without the five-hour drive next time. And so could our production teams.
Matt Sims
That is quite a long way north isn’t it, which is lovely if you live around the York area.
Guy Robinson
The thing was we did some driving events through lockdown and Elvington was one of the sites we went to. It is the most spectacular site, and also very unique. It’s privately owned, there’s a brilliant team that runs that place. And they’re so open to trying new things. So they were very supportive in terms of making sure the facilities were made right for us, but also we could financially afford to be in a venue like that.
So it is a very unique space to try and replicate somewhere else. The thing people don’t actually know about is it’s an active airfield. So if the Air Force or Army needed it in a hurry, we would have had to clear that runway in a very short space of time. So everything had to be easily manoeuvrable as well off the runway, which is how we managed to pack it down and make the convoy work so well on Sunday because the stage could all move in the space of an hour. Active runways and a big group of motorhomes are never a good combination, obviously.
Matt Sims
No. It’s a bit like children and animals.
Guy Robinson
I have to say as well, as much as we love the van life, and there were some brilliant brilliant people there, trying to get them in a long line four abreast was literally like herding cats. They are not the easiest people. Two people slept through the entire convoy. We had two vans left on the runway. I think they had a little bit too much Utah Saints the night before, so they were sleeping that off.
Matt Sims
Brilliant. Well, Guy, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Let us know when the details are available for next year. And let’s have a chat about what you’ve got planned as the plans come to pass and then people listening can find out more.
Guy Robinson
Absolutely. If you get your listeners to head to www.vanlovefest.com, there is a sign-up on that website. If you sign up for the mailing list you’ll be the first to know. It will be within two weeks from now, we’re hoping to get these tickets on sale.
Find My Leisure Vehicle with Francis Doyle
Keith Gooden
You’ve been talking to somebody, haven’t you, at the show which was way back in February. We’ve been holding on to this interview for a little while. Who was it?
Matt Sims
A good friend of mine, Francis Doyle. Francis works for the NCC, the National Caravan Council, who’ve produced a new website, which if you’re looking to buy a motorhome or caravan it’s a really handy resource. It’s called www.findmyleisurevehicle.co.uk, and it’s a great resource of new models of motorhomes and caravans where manufacturers have been encouraged to list them, list all the specs, list the prices and of course, it’s not totally up to date. It is the retail price.
And their plan is to grow this into what will become a formidable database of models of motorhomes, campervans and caravans and grow and evolve it further. And I asked Francis a bit more about the site.
Francis Doyle
It came about because when we went into lockdown about a year and a half ago, everything was shut down. And everyone moved online and it triggered the thought that actually we need to help people get to see and compare all of the lovely new models in another way.
Matt Sims
So the website is called www.findmyleisurevehicle.co.uk. So tell us, what is it?
Francis Doyle
Essentially it’s an industry guide to all of the new models on the market, 2022 models that we’ve gathered from all of our industry contacts and exhibitors to provide around about 2,000 brand new 2022 models that they can compare side by side. They can view the details and basically get the specifications.
I suppose if you were to do an analogy, it’s a little bit like a Which? guide for leisure vehicles. So it has campervans, motorhomes and touring caravans. And within it, because of the digital technology, you can use the filters to quickly put in some criteria that are important to you. You might need four berths, you might need a fixed bed, you might need a separate shower and bathroom and you can literally in a few clicks get down to the range of vehicles that would suit you, really.
Matt Sims
What detail is on there for each vehicle?
Francis Doyle
We cover the technical specification, the weights and the dimensions. We cover the habitation specification, location of the sleeping areas, the beds, the bathroom and the kitchen, and we get a little bit of an overview.
A guide price is there as well, who the manufacturer is, and who the exhibitor is. So it’s fairly comprehensive, it doesn’t cover absolutely every filter, but there are about 20 different specification points that you can understand from your search.
Owners have told us the kinds of things that are most important to them. It will evolve and we’ll add more to it. But essentially, you can filter that 2,000 vehicles down to the ten or the two that are most interesting to you.
Matt Sims
So it’s relevant for people who own a motorhome, caravan or campervan looking to upgrade or change, but also for those who haven’t got one as well. Is that who it’s aimed at?
Francis Doyle
Exactly right. It’s aimed at both owners and non-owners. Anyone who’s starting their search to look for a leisure vehicle, whether they don’t know anything about it, or they are experienced. It just gives that first point of interaction where they can get the specifications easily and quickly before going off to see them usually live, either at a dealership or at a show like this.
What we’re trying to do is simply let people see the whole range. Even experienced owners have said to us, ‘I didn’t realise that existed. I thought I knew the whole range.’ And with over 60 brands on there, there’s usually more than people realise.
Matt Sims
And it’s free to use?
Francis Doyle
It is completely free to use. You can register on the site. It’s completely optional, but if you register, that simply gives you a place to store your favourite vehicles. When you come back, you don’t have to do the search again. And also it allows you to download them so you can print off the specifications. Some people like to print them off, and you’ve got them.
It’s available on mobile and obviously on your computer. We’re starting to advertise it now, and more and more people are going on it and giving us some feedback. And it seems to be working pretty well.
Matt Sims
And from the website, can people find where that particular model of caravan or motorhome they like is available to view or to buy?
Francis Doyle
Our job is to show people the basic specifications. If they’re interested and they want to actually go and view it, we have a click-through button that takes them through to an email that goes straight through to the manufacturer. And they can ask questions about availability and firm up on pricing and extras they might want.
They can ask questions about the more technical questions that they might want to ask. It should normally get a fairly quick response from the manufacturer to that question. I think we’ve had over 2,000 enquiries go through to exhibitors already. People are using it in that way. So it’s essentially, ‘Here’s the specification. If you’re interested in anything if you want to know more, here’s a direct link to the exhibitors.’ And they’ll take it from there.
Matt Sims
To the manufacturer?
Francis Doyle
To the manufacturer, yes.
Matt Sims
It sounds fantastic. So just remind us again, what’s the website address?
