The Apprentice gives Herefordshire caravan firm a boost

A HEREFORDSHIRE business is hoping for a surge in sales after its retro-campervan caravan featured heavily in the seventh episode of the TV programme The Apprentice.

One of the two competing teams of candidates vying for the chance to win a business investment from Lord Sugar, had chosen the company’s Dub Box retro caravan as an item to sell at the Motorhome and Caravan Show held at the NEC.

Although the team ultimately failed its challenge, the Herefordshire business has already been inundated with enquiries.

Dub Box is run by a husband-and-wife team Matt and Becky Clay. They are Volkswagen campervan fanatics but their beloved 40-year-old campervan was no longer large enough to cope with their rapidly growing young family.

After searching for a vintage caravan that not only had the ‘cool’ design of a campervan but also conform to all modern safety standards, it quickly became apparent that there was nothing available on the market.

Already in the business of building luxury event trailers, there was a spark of an idea and drawing inspiration from retro campervans and vintage American caravans, the Dub Box concept was born.

The first two-berth Dub Box was unveiled in the spring of 2010 and the couple took on new workshop space in October 2011.

Becky said: “It was a scary time, putting all of our faith in an idea that had not yet proven itself with sales, but we felt that, with the level interest from the relatively small amount of people we had shown the Dub box to, the sales would come.

“We knew that we had the skills and capabilities required to manufacture the caravans, so it really did come down to the strength of our sales and marketing efforts. We took the Dub Box off to all of the shows and exhibitions and interest has steadily grown.”

Some 18 months later and a steady stream of the retro caravans are leaving the company’s headquarters in Cradley, Herefordshire.

Matt said: “We are really pleased by the way in which our business has grown in such a short space of time – an appearance on The Apprentice is just the icing on the cake and has really stimulated interest in our caravans.”