Sunshine Coast-based caravan manufacturer Australian Off Road (AOR) has collapsed into administration, marking the end of a 26-year history and leaving customers and staff in limbo. The announcement follows days of intense speculation after the company abruptly disconnected its phone lines, pulled its website offline, and locked the gates to its manufacturing facility last week.
The sudden silence triggered widespread alarm among stakeholders, who remained without information until the company briefly reinstated its Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon to confirm it had entered administration.
Founder and co-director Steve Budden cited a shifting economic landscape as the primary cause for the company’s downfall. He pointed to the challenges of sustaining a local manufacturing business against an influx of cheaper imported products and the rising costs of labor.
“Unfortunately, the manufacturing environment has changed dramatically,” Mr. Budden said in the statement. “Competing against imported products on price, while also facing competitors with substantially lower manufacturing overheads, has made it increasingly difficult to sustain the business in its existing form.”
The collapse leaves roughly 100 employees without work and raises questions for customers who had only recently engaged with the brand. As recently as last month, AOR was actively soliciting new business, offering a “bonus package” worth over $9,000 to entice customers to secure orders for the 2027 travel season.
For many, the closure was a shock. Ron and Winsome Vernieux, who travelled nearly 2,000 kilometres from regional Victoria to retrieve their caravan from the facility for repairs, described a tense race against time. The couple was among the few lucky enough to secure their property, managing to collect their vehicle on Tuesday morning before the site became inaccessible.
The closure of AOR, which traded as Rhost Pty Ltd, is the latest blow to the Queensland manufacturing sector. Earlier this year, Sunshine Coast-based firm Zone RV also collapsed into liquidation. Despite these high-profile failures, industry experts maintain that the broader recreational vehicle market remains resilient.
Jason Plant, CEO of Caravanning Queensland, attributed the recent instability to a “normalisation” of the industry following the “frenzied” demand seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We saw unprecedented growth in the industry through that period, and a lot of people jumped in,” Mr. Plant said. “What we’re seeing now is a return to a period of trading that’s more akin to 2019 rather than those frenzied buying years where dealers and manufacturers were struggling to keep up with demand.”
Mr. Budden, who famously started the company from a carport in Maleny with only a $5,000 credit card, described the collapse as “the end of a significant chapter” in Australian recreational vehicle manufacturing. The company has yet to identify which firm has been appointed as administrator.
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