Houses on wheels The Elcamp Group

Houses on wHeels

The Elcamp Group, a company from Krakow, is Poland’s leading manufacturer of premium motorhomes under the Globe-Traveller brand. It is also a distributor of motorhomes and caravans of such famous producers as Hymer, Adria and Westfalia.

The Elcamp Group provides comprehensive maintenance services for motorhomes and caravans. It also offers full pneumatic suspensions, which are the most modern solutions among currently available on the suspension market. Finally, it runs a professional repair centre for damaged tourist vehicles.

“We are appreciated by our customers for the highest quality and timely implementation of even the most demanding maintenance services. We all love to travel by motorhomes and our goal is to create a place where fans of houses on wheels will be able to take full care of their vehicles in a friendly atmosphere, from consultancy, through the service to the purchase of parts and additional equipment for their vehicles”, explains Mr Andrzej Zawilinski, the group’s CEO.

Sport and caravanning

The Elcamp Group is a part of the Zasada Group, one of the oldest and biggest Polish corporate groups, bringing together more than 30 companies, in sales, production and services in Poland and throughout Europe. In total, it employs more than 3,000 people.

The Zasada Group was established by Mr Sobieslaw Zasada, one of the most successful Polish sportsmen of all time, who after a sporting career successfully turned to business. As a rally driver he won the European Rally Championship three times (and was the runner-up three more times) at a time when the European champion was in fact the world champion. Furthermore, he was Rally Champion of Poland 11 times and in his entire sports career he has won more than 150 rallies all over the world.

Mr Zasada is an avid fan of caravanning, which helped the Elcamp Group to develop. The company has been operating since 1996 and offers a whole range of motorhomes and caravans: from small vehicles “Westfalia”, through “Adria”, “Carado”, luxury “Hymer” and “Eriba”. In 2011, it opened in Krakow a new facility with a six-storey service hall, a shop with camping accessories, a car wash, a spacious and convenient parking lot as well as a camper park, where guests from all over the world can stop and stay overnight.

Icing on the cake

“Our flagship product is the Globe-Traveller camper van, which is made entirely by ourselves and has been on the market since 2009. It is an exclusive vehicle from the market’s premium segment, based on the Fiat Ducato or Peugeot Boxer chassis and handcrafted using the best quality components in our workshop in Karczew, near Warsaw. In terms of aesthetics and the sense of space, our vehicles resemble yachts or luxury liners. Standard equipment is the most comprehensive available on the market”, points out Mr Zawilinski.

The way Elcamp makes camper vans is not a on typical assemblyline. At each step of the process, the uniqueness of each motorhome is considered; all details are adjusted so that the whole construction is complete, and everything perfectly fits together. The company operates its own carpentry shop where furniture for each vehicle is made; it also has as well a technology and design office.

Since the Globe-Traveller is a premium camper van, its standard equipment includes several components, which in the case of other manufacturers, are on the list of extra options. Electric step, passenger airbag, leisure battery, heating, skylights, ‘turbo vent’ are just a few examples of what is included in the base equipment. For those customers who wish their camper van to stand out from the others, the company offers a long list of optional equipment to allow true personalisation of their motorhomes. Leather upholstery, leather steering wheel and gear knob, automatic air conditioning, GPS navigation, solar panels, TV set with satellite receiver, and many more options are available.

Strong european market player

The company employs more than 60 people, primarily a team of professionals and enthusiasts who genuinely love what they do. The Elcamp Group’s annual sales reached more than €10 million in 2018; its production output in 2018 was 150 vehicles, while in 2019 it is estimated as 180-200 units. Most of the production goes abroad. In recent years annual foreign sales have totalled 100-130 vehicles. Such European countries as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary are the Elcamp’s main foreign markets.

“We have a wide group of regular customers and an increasing number of new owners of campers and caravans who trust in our team. Interestingly, we have also a group of younger customers who quickly got bored with the traditional kinds of tourism and turned to motorhomes to be able to take active holidays. They prefer to visit many interesting places instead of lingering in one place”, says Mr Zawilinski.

The market success of Elcamp has not encouraged the company to rest on its laurels. It intensively invests in its further development, e.g. recently it purchased the latest design computer software; it plans to build a new production facility to increase capacity. It also is preparing to expand the range of engines used in its camper vans (currently they are diesel engines) with ecological engines that are the future of mobility. n

Visit: www.elcamp.pl Visit: www.globe-traveller.eu