The Writing on the Wall: What Gerry Ryan Got Right, and What the Mini-Mills Tell Us About Australian-Made Vans

Gerry Ryan has earned the right to speak his mind. Fifty-odd years ago he walked onto a Sunwagon production line as a 22-year-old. He went on to build Jayco into the biggest name in Australian caravanning, and he still walks the factory floor to say hello to people who have worked for him for 40 years.

So when he sat down with Max Taylor from GoRV's Tow & Tell and said the national body isn't listening, Chinese imports are winning on price, and a new manufacturers' association is coming, the industry listened. We did too.

At Vanture we sit at an unusual spot in this industry. We see vans at the end of their first life, when private owners list them for the next family. From there you notice which brands still have a phone number, a parts counter and a dealer down the road. You also notice which ones don't.

Here is what we think Gerry got right, where we see it differently, and what we'd do about it.

What Gerry got right

• It is too easy to get in, and too easy to walk out. A container of vans, a sign on the fence and you're in business. When those businesses close, buyers lose deposits, and owners lose parts and service. Every closure costs the whole industry trust.

• Volume matters. Gerry says Jayco can build a van in about 30% less time than competitors, and it just spent $2 million on new equipment. Scale is a real advantage, and most local builders don't have it.

• Buyers have never been better informed. His advice is simple: before you buy, check there is a service network and that you can get parts. We agree completely.

• The local advantage is flexibility, not the flag. Gerry admits the Australian Made logo didn't change Jayco's sales. What local builders can offer is customisation, after-sales service and parts.

Where we see it differently: the mini-mill story

In the 1970s, small American "mini-mills" started making rebar, the cheapest and least profitable steel. The big integrated mills were glad to let it go. The mini-mills got better, moved up one product at a time, and eventually took the premium end too. By the time the giants noticed, there was nowhere left to retreat. See the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/05/14/when-giants-fail

Australian caravanning has been running the same play for 15 years.

Imported brands started with camper trailers, the bottom rung. Then they moved into off-road hybrids, then pop-tops, then full caravans. Every step, the product got better. Gerry says it himself: "there's some very good product being imported." Brands like Ezytrail and MDC came out of camper trailers and now innovate at a pace that should worry anyone who thinks this is still about cheap and cheerful.

Here's the uncomfortable part. Jayco itself started as a mini-mill. In 1975 it built affordable vans, won on volume, and kept moving up. Today, Jayco's volume, distribution and pricing put as much pressure on small local builders as any container from China. When Gerry tells his team to cut back from roughly 150 models and "be the best in each segment", that can be read two ways. It is sharp focus, or it is the first step of a retreat up-market. Only time will tell.

We've seen this film before

In September 2011, 14 local camper trailer builders formed the Australian Manufactured Camper Trailer Guild. Its aim was to fight cheap imports, especially ones marketed as Australian-built. Cub Campers was one of its leading voices.

Fifteen years on, most of those brands are gone. Cub is one of the few survivors. It didn't survive because of the guild. It survived because it moved up into hybrids and caravans before the market took the ground out from under it.

That is the lesson. Associations and barriers buy time. They don't change where the market is heading.

What we'd do instead

1. Fix the national body from the inside. A breakaway association splits the industry's voice when it needs one voice most. A loud and action oriented manufacturing and importing subcommittee inside the national body would give builders and importers a direct say on compliance, without the split.

2. Protect deposits, industry-wide. In the interview, Max pointed to a manufacturer that already guarantees customer deposits. Gerry’s view was that Jayco doesn’t need one, and with 50 years behind it, that’s fair today. But big trees fall too. Holden was an Australian institution right up until it wasn’t. Gerry raised an insurance scheme for deposits, and it’s the best idea in the interview. If the biggest names backed it, they’d lift confidence for everyone, themselves included.

3. Build a parts and service safety net for orphaned vans. Most running gear, appliances and electrics are shared across brands. What owners lose when a brand folds is everything else: body panels, cabinetry, chassis-specific parts and someone to fix them. A shared parts register and a network of service agents willing to take on orphaned brands would turn a closure from a disaster into an inconvenience. We’ve made a start: Vanture’s services map lists more than 2,800 repairers, suppliers and service providers across Australia. It’s not the whole answer, but no owner should be left without someone to call.

4. Grow the pie, don't just fight over it. Gerry's own philosophy is that a slice of a big pie beats all of a small one. Retail sales have fallen from about 40,000 units in the COVID boom to around 25,000, by his estimate and industry data. Yet almost nobody is spending to make Australians excited about caravanning again. Dedicated media has thinned out and can't compete with the surge of "micro influencer syndrome". Shows feel like they run every second weekend, which stretches manufacturers thin, pulls staff away from existing customers, and hurts cash flow every time it rains. A category campaign that sells the lifestyle, not a brand, would do more than another association.

Where Vanture stands

We love Australian-made vans. We understand the pressure their builders are under, and we respect what Gerry Ryan and Jayco have built. He is a national treasure, and his resilience is the stuff of legend.

But his views are the views of a business that has led the market for 50 years. That isn't a criticism. It is just a different vantage point from a small builder, an importer with a good product, or a family trying to sell a van whose maker no longer exists.

Our job is to look after the owners and buyers on both ends of a sale, and to back solutions that keep the whole industry healthy. The writing is on the wall. It just isn't clearly painted for everyone yet.

Let's bookmark this post and come back to it in five years. We'd love to be wrong.

Watch the full interview on GoRV TV's Tow & Tell.