BRITISH CARAVAN HOMES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23219, 3 April 1950, Page 4

BRITISH CARAVAN HOMES

Mobility for Itchy Feet

iQharlie Panter is a man who has got himself ** well lined-up to do the impossible. He is selling British trailer vans in the a competitive price after paying quite £IOO freight charges on each.

Panter set out to research the American market with care and he found that trends in Britain were positive demands across the Atlantic. He found 100.000 vans a year being sold and more than a million people living permanently in trailer homes. By clever production technique he beat American manufacturing costs by 20%; and it is only fair to say that the American industry appears to have given him maximum goodwill and co-operation.

Thanks awfully bui .. . Panter went out to get just that goodwill. To the American Trailer Coach Manufacturers’ Association he spoke quite frankly: “ Each of you is giving us about £1 a week in Marshall Aid. That is good of you and we are grateful—but we hate it. We would rather earn the money; and we can if one cent of every dollar you spend is spent on British goods. Now I make caravans. .

The Americans played. Visits were exchanged and American requirements were incorporated in Panter’s designs. Agencies have been fixed up in twelve States of the Union, and the whole of Canada is covered. Home demand always helps exports; and Pan ter found that in Britain 90% of vans now being bought are required as permanent homes. Young people are buying what amounts to a house and furniture for about £SOO. Folk just out of the Services, some still with itchy feet, appreciate mobility when a change of job carries with it no housing problems. The R.A.F. have adapted satellite airfields as caravan sites to lessen the waiting list for married quarters. Civil engineers and others with mobile jobs are, says Panter, beginning to find an answer in the caravan. He quotes the toolmakers of the U.S.A., most of whom regard themselves as a mobile labour force and who are turning more and more to trailer homes.