Christchurch-based campervan company shuts its doors due to Covid-19

Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Christchurch company Iconic Motorhomes is winding up after 15 years in the game.

The prospect of reopened borders in 2022 has come too late for a high-end motorhome company in Christchurch that is joining a raft of Covid-19 tourism casualties.

Iconic Motorhomes, owned by couple Kay and Michael Parker, has shut its doors and is selling off its 55 vehicles.

The tourism industry, including motorhome providers, has been hit hard by the lack of tourists while New Zealand’s borders remain closed due to the pandemic.

Last year, Jucy Group, which has operations in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Britain, reported a 90 per cent drop in its income and reduced its staff by about two thirds.

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A capital injection from investment company Polar Capital in November kept Jucy afloat. Chief executive Dan Alpe told Stuff at the time coronavirus had an “unprecedented and devastating” impact on the business.

Iconic Motorhomes director Kay Parker said she and her husband hung on in the hope New Zealand’s borders would open this year.

They kept the business operating for as long as it took for their staff to get other jobs, she said.

Their closeness to retirement age, problems with getting new vehicles and having to wait until 2022 for the return of some sort of normality all played a part in the decision to wind up.

Covid-19 had turned their lives “upside down”.

Open borders will come too late for Iconic Motorhomes.

The company operated for 15 years and had branches in Christchurch and Auckland. It bought new motorhomes, hired them out for about two years, then sold them in its own sales yards.

The Parkers had started the business, which was worth about $7m, from scratch.

They are closing both yards and still have a few motorhomes to sell.

Overseas clients who were not able to recoup their deposits through travel insurance were refunded, Parker said.

Iconic Motorhomes is looking for a new lessee for its yard in Christchurch.

She had dealt with each case personally.

A British man who started an online campaign making allegations about the company had made completely unjustified statements and had received his deposit back, she said.

The company is trying to find new lessees for its sales yards.

Rental Vehicles Association chief executive Alex Voutratzis said motorhome companies had stayed afloat by selling off vehicles, but that would make it difficult to gear up again.

Operators needed a road map to the border reopening and lead-in time to prepare for business returning to normal, he said.

Bill Morris, whose company operates a broking website for motorhome rental companies, said the impact of the pandemic had been “horrendous”, with companies struggling for revenue and competing fiercely with each other.

Prices had been down in March but had risen for April because of Easter demand and the school holidays. New Zealand customers had not filled the vacuum left by overseas visitors, he said.

New Zealanders did not want to the spend the type of money charged for the rentals, Morris said.

Six-berth camper vans are still available for Easter when previously they were had been booked out for months.

Tourist Holdings, a New Zealand-based group that owns the Maui, Britz and Mighty motorhomes operations, reported a large shift from rentals to sales of motorhomes.

Chief executive Grant Webster told the market in February that the New Zealand business was unlikely to make a profit while borders remained closed.