A ground-breaking West Midlands’ motorhome business is on the road to expansion as construction work gets underway on new headquarters in a £5.5m deal backed by Allied Irish Bank (GB) (AIB (GB)).
Currently based in Telford, Travelworld Motorhomes was formed in 1977 by Bob Edwards and was one of the UK’s first American recreational vehicle (RV) dealerships, growing to become the largest importer and stockist of American RVs outside of North America. Following further innovative developments, including designing a range of VW camper van conversions, Travelworld is now an exclusive UK dealer for the Erwin Hymer Group of vehicles. The company is now run by Bob’s son Ross with his sister Annabel Macquarie, has an annual turnover of £28m and employs 60 staff.
Travelworld’s new headquarters at Junction 14 of the M6 near Stafford is due for completion in October 2018, will comprise a 1,000 sq m of state-of-the-art showroom, offices and a 1,000 sq m service centre as well as extensive parking for visitors.
Bartley Finnegan, Senior Relationship Manager at Allied Irish Bank (GB) in Birmingham, who led the deal with colleague Brian Hammond, said: “Over the last 40 years the Edwards family has built a very successful, market-leading business at Travelworld. This new showroom and headquarters is at a fantastic, high profile location and one which we know will provide Ross, Annabel and their team with strong foundations for further expansion.”
Travelworld Managing Director Ross Edwards said: “We’d been looking for a new headquarters for some time and this site just off the M6 is both the right size and location to enable us to appeal to a much wider catchment area. The motorhome market in the UK has doubled since 2013, benefiting from a significant amount of product innovation, which appeals to both new groups of adventuring “staycationers” as well as traditional caravanners. The move to Stafford will enable us to capitalise fully on those favourable market conditions.
“It took quite a while to complete the planning process for the new development, but the encouragement and support that we received from Bartley, Brian and the team at AIB (GB) throughout the process was really important and made a real difference.”