With caravans enjoying an ever increasing popularity across South Africa, Jurgens Ci is well placed as the largest manufacturer in the country. Established 62 years ago, it has gone on to command a 90% share of the local caravan market and operates throughout the many aspects of the outdoor lifestyle market.
A familiar sight across South African neighbourhoods is the retail brand Campworld, under which Jurgens distributes its products locally. As well as its reputation for manufacturing caravans the company is also renowned for the quality and engineering of its trailers and for its specialist conversions of purpose-specific vehicles. Jurgens Ci also manufactures trailers and truck bodies, ranging from luggage trailers and utility trailers to a range of innovative new truck bodies that allow for versatile modular assembly anywhere. Jurgens Ci Managing Director Bradley Salters talks us through the development of the company and the many different strands that now comprise it. “Jurgens was originally established about 60 years ago, as a caravan and trailer manufacturer. Today we cover a multitude of brands and cater for pretty much the entirety of the outdoor lifestyle business, right through from an entry-level trailer to luxury caravans, and almost everything in between.”
“We are the country’s go-to camping and caravan company,” states Salters, when asked to describe what really defines Jurgens Ci as a business, and it is a level of renown which has helped Jurgens to enjoy a comprehensive presence across the country. “We also serve the off-road vehicle market through our Safari Centre franchise. Currently, we have 34 full-service dealerships throughout the country, which comprise caravans, trailers and camping gear. We’ve then got about six who deal just in trailers and camping gear, Alongside this compliment we’ve then got a mix of Safari Centre stores, about 10 of which are linked to Campworld sites and five independent. We manufacture a lot of our products ourselves, particularly the things which go on wheels as well as our canvas collections, and then most of our camping gear is either imported or sought from local distributors which we then wholesale.”
The product range which Jurgens now presents is the result of much diversification within the company since its beginnings. “If you go back, say, twenty years, then Jurgens was still purely a caravan manufacturer,” Salters tells us. “The trailer side came into the equation about eight years ago, while the camping gear has been in existence for around ten years now. The idea is to be able to supply our dealers with pretty much anything they need. Where they would potentially have used to source certain things from other places, we have grown our business to better cater for their needs. We also have representation in Australia, where we own 70% of Jurgens Australia, a dedicated caravan manufacturer over there where we can make our product.”
Having ownership of such a wide range of business arms across such a wide footprint proves highly beneficial in many ways, although it is not without its complications. “Because of the multitude of businesses we have seen varying performances from each of these over the last year or so. The markets in which we are involved are actually fairly stagnant at present, which is of course nothing disastrous, but as such a dominant player in the market the only way it is going to grow is by our own endeavours. In time we will look to become a components manufacturer to overseas operations. As an example, there is a short-term window which is completely outside of our existing industry, which involves manufacturing some components for the new South African Bombardier trains. In time, if successful, this could well feed into an export contract for Bombardier in Europe and hopefully worldwide. That comes through utilising our existing manufacturing process to create a slightly different product, not too far removed from what we currently make.
This dominance of the market, which sees Jurgens hold in the region of a 90% share, brings with it a responsibility on Jurgens Ci’s part to facilitate its expansion themselves. “Caravans are still our core business, but with the off-road caravans we are in the region of 50%, so there is certainly some opportunity within this, although it is not a huge market. Similarly, we have about 40% of the off-road trailers market and are certainly looking to grow that in time, while the luggage trailer side is a tight business and one we are not looking to grow, as the benefits that would bring are not so remarkable. For us, what is really key is dealer performance, and ensuring that they are doing well, as this is obviously central to feeding our business.”
One way of achieving such growth is through promoting the attractiveness of this type of holiday to South Africans, as Salters explains. “In November last year we launched a new marketing campaign, dropping our direct brand advertising which had become increasingly necessary, given how well known we are, and pushed instead into something called 52 holidays a year, under the Campworld banner. Within this we are trying to get across the fact that everything people may require to enjoy this type of holiday can be found at Campworld, and then start talking about destinations and lifestyle activities that can be piggybacked off camping as a whole. Our strategy from a marketing point of view is to both claim new conquests and to cater for our existing customer base to ensure they return as repeat buyers.”
The last twelve months have been punctuated by a number of key achievements, as Salters details. “We’ve seen a positive growth in caravan sales,” he says of the period, “which has been largely driven by the marketing and putting in place lucrative dealer incentives. Our Howling Moon range of canvas tents has also seen us enter into a number of external markets, which has brought some good orders from America, as well as growth in both Australia and Europe. From a dealer perspective we have offered the Safari Centre franchise as a kind of ‘bolt-on’ operation for them, which is another effective way to earn money and has garnered positive results for those that have taken it on board.”
As for the goals to define the rest of the year and 2016, many of Jurgens Ci’s plans centre around efficiency. “Obviously we are always looking to grow and look after the bottom line, but Australia is a great opportunity for us and we’ve had some very pleasing growth from what was a relatively small base, so it is key that we keep that momentum going. Our business here is the manufacture, in South Africa, of the majority of large components which go into a caravan which are then exported to Australia as a knock-down kit. On that side it is then assembled and then the furnishings are installed, as well as the electrical items which are procured locally. The intention is to grow that business to the same volume that we have here is South Africa, and if we get this right we will have about 10% of the market in Australia, which will provide us with our immediate term growth.”
This success will also prove highly valuable to the business as a whole. “If we can grow our sales volumes on that side it will feed directly back into our South African operations, which would then allow us to expand significantly from a head count point of view. We’ve also added the off-road products to our business and have acquired a distribution contract with TJM, probably the second biggest Australian off-road product company, and we are now the distributor for Souther Africa. We are keen to grow this business, which sees us deal in suspensions and other after-market equipment like bumpers, and all the other goodies people like to have on their 4x4s, and this is certainly a real opportunity to experience some nice growth. Something else which is on the radar now is our seeking avenues by which to get into countries north of our border with the off-road trailer product and camping side of the business, places in which we don’t really participate at present.”
With all of these expansion prospects in the pipeline for Jurgens Ci, Slaters makes clear that the focus moving forward remains very much on catering for the aspects of the business which have allowed it to experience such success to date. “Key for us is to look after the brand we already have established, the whole of which has been built primarily on the success of our three principal caravan types – Jurgens, Gypsy and Sprite, and to make sure that this products continue to offer good value for money, especially given that we are renowned for the quality of our products. In essence, that is what keeps the wheel turning for us, and so we need to ensure that we don’t lose sight of the core. While we are venturing into these new aspects of the business that are somewhat different from our normal operations, these all need a channel through which to be marketed otherwise it can prove very difficult to launch them successfully. In this regard, we have very much taken a step back to identify our core business, and from there we will look to offer as many products as possible to these markets and thus maximise every opportunity we have.”