Bürstner generously invited Dave Lockie and Bruce Stanger (representing the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association) and Bill Savidan and me (representing Motorhomes, Caravans and Destinations magazine) to Offenberg, Germany for their annual press conference and the celebration of their 50th year of operation.
The rise and rise of the Bürstner Company is a fascinating story and although we are unlikely, in a market as small as New Zealand’s, to come anywhere near its output, it’s heartening to know just how successful a motorhome and caravan manufacturing enterprise can become.
Like many New Zealand RV manufacturing companies, it began by happenstance rather than rigorous planning. In 1924, a joiner in Kehl, Germany, one Jakob Bürstner opened his own joinery workshop close to the Rhine River and the French city of Strasbourg. Business flourished; then in the early fifties Jakob’s son, Gerhart, began tinkering with plans and designs for a caravan and in 1958, the first Bürstner caravan was built to order for a client.
Twenty years later the company was producing 8,500 units a year; in 1982 the output rose to 15,000 units and in 1986 (when the company also began building its first motorhomes) to 20,000.
But in the 1990s, disaster struck with a drastic decrease in demand in the general market. Existing stock stayed put in the dealers’ yards and the Bürstner Company all but went bust. It was saved from insolvency by an investor, but the rescue also spelled the end of the Bürstner family’s involvement.
Restructuring so that product was only built to order turned things around and today, despite rising fuel prices and other dire predictions about the world economy, the company is still on the rise.
Production last year (from July 2007 to June 2008) was 6,600 motorhomes and 5,100 caravans, which added up to a total turnover 330 million Euros – an increase on last year of about seven percent when the turnover was a mere 308 million!
I asked Guido Moosmann, the export development manager, what, apart from restructuring, had led Bürstner to become one of Europe’s major players.
“Well, one reason is that production in the past was only for the European market but now we are becoming much more global,” he said. “Another is that we traditionally produced for the middle to upper end of the market but now we have developed a much wider range.
“Customers’ expectations are rising all the time and so we make sure that we are constantly developing new models and improving and adjusting layouts. We have about 38 models in the total range and 17 of them are new developments. That’s around 50 percent.
“I don’t mean just a few adjustments but often big steps forward, and I can say that Bürstner is perceived as innovative in many ways. I think our interior designs have given us quite a unique position in the market. It is also interesting that two years ago we produced more motorhomes than caravans for the first time in the history of the company.
“We also have one of the best after-sales service centres in Europe. We have new service centre in Kehl where all standard parts are kept in stock and can be quickly dispatched to dealers. But if people want to bring their vehicles here, there is a comprehensive workshop, overnight parking and a dump station on the site for their use.”
“If you look at the sub-text of the Bürstner logo,” Guido continued, “you’ll sometimes see the words: grenzenloses wohlfuhlet. The closest translation in English is something like “limitless feeling of well-being,” although our Scottish agent says it simply means “happy as a pig in slops”. Anyway, wellbeing is the philosophy we use in every aspect of the company, from the workers to the product design. Wellbeing can be applied to things such as adjusting the back of the lounge seat for more comfort, to the soft feeling upholstery which is easy to clean, to the treatment of customers and our workers and staff.”
We were able to see the factory in Kehl for ourselves. Today Bürstner employs 1,150 people, most of them in the Wissembourg factory on the river Lauter close in easternmost Alsace région of France, and in the Kehl factory in Germany sited on a headland between the Rhine River and the dock.
In the latter, 600 employees work on two highly efficient and mechanised assembly lines. It is quite a sight to see a naked chassis and scuttle at the beginning of the line and know that before the day is through it will be a fully fledged motorhome ready for delivery.
Not only that, each day there will be another 19 motorhomes completed from woe to go. And that is only one line. The total output of new motorhomes per day from both factories is 29. The output of caravans per day is around 22.
By New Zealand standards – actually by anybody’s standards – that is a massive output. The amount of planning and organisation to make it happen is hard to comprehend. And if it sounds like a sausage factory, the fact is it’s not.
Not only are there many different models, but each has customised features and therefore, its own list of instructions. The extras for each vehicle, and individual specifications such as the choice of fabric, interior cladding exterior colours and decals, have to be lined up precisely and in situ by each station ready for installation.
And we were impressed with the dedication to checking and quality control that occurred before a vehicle was moved from one part of the operation to the next.
The press conference in Offenberg followed the dealer conference, which had taken place during the previous week. Apart from us, around 80 representatives from European media attended. Speakers reminded us that design, innovation and wellbeing underpinned everything that the company undertook, and that to remain successful, it was important to keep up with the times and changing customer behaviour. At the moment, for instance, rising inflation, energy costs and stagnating incomes were not only having negative impact on household buying but were impinging on the RV market.
Bürstner ’s response to this has been swift. In their 2008 range they focussed their attention on the lower priced, entry-level segment of the market with models such as the Nexxo, Travel Van and Quadro. This does not mean that other segments were neglected; just that the choice was widened.
For the 2009 range more economy motorhomes have been added, such as the City Car, the first “panel van” motorhome from Bürstner and the Viseo.
Around 13 different models were on display at the conference. My all time favourite was a mid-range model called the Marano T640, built on a Fiat Ducato base.
These are the features that I felt put it ahead of other models of a similar size: overhead lockers that slope backwards towards the top and increased the feeling of spaciousness; an extendable table with neatly finished rounded edges so you don’t catch parts of your body on sharp angles; a swivelling multi level TV; a curved mirrored fridge door (an added value was that it made me look slim); a roomy bathroom with two screens so that the toilet and basin could both be blocked off while the shower’s in use; the manuka honey-coloured wood grain; an easily accessible and comprehensible switch board; an L-shaped kitchen which, although mean on bench space, had a drainage tray with a sink hole for drainage and a good sized round sink basin with straight sides which means you can easily clean a fry pan and larger pots; and swivel taps that were placed to one side of the sink and could be pushed out of the way.
And I particularly like the form/function/aesthetic co-ordination that had been so carefully thought out, and the sophisticated colour combinations which were easy on the eye. The only negatives I could come up with were that the kitchen bench is only adequate and the home door is on the roadside, not the curb side (this evidently did not deter the 800 UK buyers who opted for a Bürstner model this year).
It is hard to get away from the fact that the exterior of any motorhome is a square or oblong box. The Marano disguised this with soft matching colour schemes – a red cab and white or red skirts or silver painted sides.
Anyone interested will be able to see a selection of Bürstner products in a month or too at Barrons in Taupo as I believe several display models have been ordered. I certainly will be going back for a second look.