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My first NEC show as part of the Ma-Ve and SR Mecatronic team and life’s still full of surprises. 

Old faces from the likes of Knaus, Weinsburg and Bailey pop up but, after 30 years in the industry, I’m still meeting new people.  It was great to meet up with the teams from Glide Rite, LCI Lippert and Alko to name a few.

It’s still a wonderful industry to work in with many kind and thoughtful people.  I was genuinely humbled by the good wishes from the teams at Avtex, Prima, Broad Lane and far too many more to mention.

It’s certainly true what people were saying – automatic levelling would appear to be the product for 2019, as borne out by so many of the Caravan Writers Guild and their colleagues visiting our stand on the Tuesday evening.

Always hard work getting round to support everyone but a pleasure of course to have a presence on Frankia, Globecar, Hobby and Auto-Sleeper with great pride in the Ma-Ve levelling system fitted to the Auto-Sleeper Bourton on the Mercedes stand.

Now, after the show, it’s back to the day job – following up on all the leads, both on satellite systems and levelling.  In time honoured fashion the app for the SR Mecatronic products was launched by Apple 2 days after the show.  I never thought I could get excited about these modern ideas but Wow! The app is great. 

Keep a close eye on www.srmecatronic.co.uk and www.ma-ve.co.uk for more new additions and improvements to the satellite and levelling products.

We’re always interested in talking to dealers as well as end users so feel free to contact any of the Ma-Ve and SR Mecatronic team if you want to know more about the products.

A back story, painting a picture, setting the scene etc etc.

Hello everyone, my name is Phil and I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Just to show you where my perspective, and opinions, are coming from I’d like to explain my history within the motorhome and caravan leisure industry. About 9 years ago I was asked by a friend to become his manager and help run TOWtal. As all roads did not lead to Rome in my current situation I decided to ignore advice, disregard common sense, shun all warnings and just go for it. To cut a long story short this has led to the successful building of TOWtal and the introduction of 4 new distribution companies, all experiencing success and profitability within their sectors.

In the beginning, there was darkness……….

As TOWtal grew, and we got a team of staff that improved us as a company, we decided we had the setup to expand into the market. Our original idea was to bring new product to the market for TOWtal to offer out for its customer base. This thought led us to a painful number of motorhome and caravan shows across Europe and (coincidentally) a tour of the lowest standard hotels on offer across the continent! It was at the Caravan Salon Düsseldorf where we focused our attentions and we contacted a host of companies, with a range of products that we felt could impact the market. I won’t lie, after 2-3 years of no notable response, the enthusiasm for this adventure began to waver. With TOWtal and the size of the companies looking for product at the show, we felt somewhat like we’d brought a sword to a gunfight. Then we saw MA-VE…….

From small beginnings come great things

When we spotted MA-VE in 2014 we saw an Automatic Levelling System for motorhomes that ticked all the boxes: quality, warranty, ease of use, reliability and costings. The system was in a development stage but we knew we had a product for a market that was dominated almost entirely by one brand. Our original plan was to share market and offer an alternative, but this all changed in the years to come. It wasn’t until 2016 that we finally got to the manufacturers in Italy and San Marino, so if I can offer any advice here it’s to not give up in something you see potential in. During this time we did research into the market, contacted potential customers and did our research on other systems. At the end of this stage we’d built up a good product knowledge and had been in enough chat forums to know what the end users wanted. This process is painfully slow, but invaluable when coming to market. Our original game plan had evolved and we realised that we couldn’t import through TOWtal, as we couldn’t market the systems fairly at trade shows with one agent so heavily favoured. We wanted our fitting centres to be independent specialist accessory fitters, not dealerships. The reason for this was to offer complete market exposure as some dealerships will not send their vehicles for fitting at competitors (this was discovered whist waiting 2 years for product). This however created the problem that as TOWtal, we wanted to distribute to OUR competitors! Needless to say, that did not sit well with those guys………MA-VE Distribution Ltd (MA-VE UK) was born December 2016 to combat this.

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will

With the path we had taken we felt in a strong position to hit the market, the only small obstacle was that we didn’t ever really sell levelling systems at TOWtal! This, however, was of no consequence to us and we confidently announced the lofty dreams of 20 units per year. As a new project to the manufacturers this was fine, as they appreciated business takes time to build and our loyalty to their product had kept us in the good books. During all of this we had decided to ambitiously ask if we could distribute their fully automatic satellite systems, SR Mecatronic. Needless to say they did not jump at the chance to have their full product range distributed by an unknown quantity who had sold precisely zero units…………..but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I continued to ask for the satellite systems at every single meeting, like a child who won’t stop asking their parents for sweets, but often with the same response. We soft launched the product at the NEC motorhome and caravan show with TOWtal. This was possibly not the best approach but we lacked the confidence to market the system alone without an established brand next to it. We invited all potential fitting agents to look at the product and offered them the pricing and service.  As current market leaders offered little support, tight margins, agents everywhere and an arrogance in their approach……we had put ourselves in a position to go the opposite way. We had total faith in the system, had accidentally become specialists with our acquired knowledge, decided we only wanted a handful of “authorised agents” fitting systems and offered good product margins at a cost to ourselves. This may seem madness but our theory was that the agents would push the product and advertise individually as it would be worth them doing so, this would in turn reduce our needs to advertise and they would hit bigger numbers. As we keep them all at an arms length in their own regions, we can all pull in the same direction rather than fight each other. They liked what they saw, they liked what they heard, they saw potential and our training began. A network was born. For our part we run the shows neutrally and push all leads to the relevant areas, so essentially they get a second show stand with no overheads.

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying small stones

At this point we began to actually move product. Our lofty dream of 20 units had been surpassed within 3 months and we reinvested every penny from MA-VE UK back into advertising and stock, whilst TOWtal paid our wages. At this point we must have been noticed by the other guys, like a fly you just can’t swat. They decided to reduce their costings by £1000 per unit, thus presenting us with our opportunity. Not only did we have a better product (in our eyes) but they devalued their own and somewhat infuriated every customer who had recently paid top dollar. We marketed the system as the premium product it is, rather than underselling it as we had previously, and the sales went galactic. We will be market leaders this time next year and SR Mecatronic was offered to us and set up as SR Mecatronic Ltd (SR Mecatronic UK) in May 2017. We have since entered into partnership with one of the industries leading specialists as our Director of Sales and run the company along the same lines as MA-VE. Having just been offered the UK distribution rights to Linnepe we have our next project just around the corner and we all feel proud that we are now being approached for these projects, rather than being ignored for 2-3 years.

Be yourself; everyone else is taken

In summery my advice would be……

• Never give up
• Knowledge is power, know your product
• Listen to your customer, even if you don’t like what you hear
• Don’t be greedy, shared success is continued success
• Spot, and take, your opportunities
• Be yourself

Ultimately through all of this we are the same two friends who enjoy a beer and play FIFA. Our entire approach is based on who we are, as work is so much harder if you are pretending to be someone else every day. You don’t need to be a mirror image of your manufacturer to sell their products.

            Phil Graham

Starting a blog when you feel like you don’t really have much to say about anything is pretty hard!

Let’s start with the basics, shall we?

Hi there. My name’s Alex, I’m 22 and I’m a newcomer to the leisure industry in general. You might be a bit surprised to read that I’m so young, and indeed, I had no previous plans or aim to enter such an industry either. Life has many twists and turns, most of them unexpected, and so here we are. I have to say – It’s been pretty damn interesting so far.
As you would expect, starting work in an industry you barely knew existed can bring quite a bit of change. Not only do you have to learn all of the brand names, products and a long list of jargon, but then there’s also a slew of other information to take in, such as how certain products are fitted, the existence of “Type Approved” tow bars…all the inner workings that most people wouldn’t even begin to think about. Or maybe they would – again, I wouldn’t exactly know yet, since I’m still a 100% certified newbie to the industry.

And you would think that, being so young, that a lot of the stuff we sell and fit would be utterly boring to me. But not so; in fact, it’s been rather fascinating to me as a whole. For example, take the Ma-Ve hydraulic leveling system. That thing is not only revolutionary in its design (judging from the promotional text and also compared to other systems), but it’s really impressive in just how solidly it holds this massive vehicle steady even when the added weight of people are milling about inside of it. And outside of the levelling systems, satellites, tow bars and everything else we sell, it seems like there’s still a lot of stuff I have to learn with regards to both rival products and other various add-ons that can be installed onto (or into) a motorhome.

I’d like to just mention something before signing off here. My prompt for this blog (which, from this point forward will be more me talking about a specific product from my own point of view) was “A young person’s view on the first weeks working in an old person’s industry”. You might have noticed but I’ve barely touched on the actual prompt, instead choosing to simply discuss the industry at large neutrally, with a touch of “Wow, I’m Young!” This is mainly because, quite frankly, age is an irrelevant factor for me here. I mean, you’re reading the blog of someone who has this weird obsession with watching old TV adverts from the 80s and listening to soft rock from the 70s. So, whilst the leisure industry is by are large enjoyed by older people rather than my own demographic…I don’t really mind that. It makes things a bit more comfortable, I think, not to mention that everything about going on holiday in a Motorhome sounds very much my pace of things.

So, I guess that’s kind of all I have to say for now.

Apologies for the rather awkward writing, but as I said, I’ve sort of had to fudge this post a bit. Whilst I have been working here for about four weeks now, I still don’t feel like I’ve learned quite enough to be able to confidently talk about the prompt I was given. But do bear with me – eventually I’ll get the knack of this and we’ll be chatting like we’ve known each other for years. …Or something to that extent. I’m not sure. Is that weird? It might be weird. Look, whatever, basically you’re lumped with me now no matter what. I’ll see you again in a month or so. Cheers!

Below is an account of my first motorhome and caravan sales experience at the N.E.C Motorhome and caravan show, promoting the MA-VE motorhome levelling system.

The Nitty-Gritty
Coming from a sales background, however never working a show previously in the motorhome and leisure industry, i was intrigued when one of the products that i was showcasing at a recent motorhome event (N.E.C Caravan and motorhome show) was a hydraulic system that levelled a motorhome on uneven ground.
The MA-VE Hydraulic system Is manufactured in San Marino, Italy and is essentially 4 telescopic hydraulic legs on brackets comprising of a 12v motor, pump, pipework and an ECU which controls the system.

Why the need to Level anyway?
My first instinct having never spent any time on the road in the luxury of a motorhome, was why would you really need to level out the home in the first place? Would it not be simple and more cost effective to park on level ground in the first place?
I guess that my inexperience was evident after speaking to the motorhome faithful, who after many years on the road staying at various uneven sites, had the dilemma of choosing whether to sleep slanting downwards (like a child on a sledge in the snow) or upwards with feet raised in the air (like a bungee jump without the harness!).

The customers perspective ‘Don’t come knocking if the motorhomes a Rocking’
It seems that i had not taken into consideration the more adventurous campers out there who like to get the motorhome ‘a Rocking and a rolling’ at night. On the first day of the N.E.C motorhome and caravan show I was ‘taken aback’ when a lovely middle-aged couple came bouncing onto the stand to proclaim they had recently purchased the MA-VE system.
Mr mentioned that previously they were conscious of other campers noticing the van moving excessively at night, but now they have the steadiness of the levelling system, their love life was rejuvenated, their motorhome mojo was restored and Mrs was now swinging from the skylight again!
So after the awkward pause… the second thing that became apparent to me was that the MA-VE Levelling system stability would ensure discreteness for all of the ‘over energetic’ motorhome ‘movers and shakers’.

More benefits of levelling
The other great advantage to the system was the fact that it can be controlled in manual mode, so the legs on one side can be deployed, this is a great help when changing a tyre or emptying the waste. (They do say s**t rolls downwards, and now it can!!). This mode is also useful if you require a beer from the side board, which can now just slide into your hand, rather than getting up onto your feet to fetch a bottle when defuddled. However if you really want to have fun with the system you can tilt one side of the vehicle, unburdening any rainwater from the roof onto the site manager when they arrive at the motorhome door to collect site fees.
A great bonus to the system seemed to be the Bluetooth/android app that can be downloaded free onto a mobile phone, rather than paying extra for a remote control. It must be a pleasure watching people struggle with ramps and spirit levels whilst you sit 30m away in the nearest beer garden controlling your vehicle level with a different spirit in hand.

Security matters!
On a more serious note the MA-VE security features are an added benefit to the system, as with the stainless steel legs deployed it makes the vehicle much harder to remove or tow away and would certainly make anyone with an unwanted attraction to your ‘little pride and joy’ think twice about running away with it.
What I liked with this system is the fact that if the pipework underneath the vehicle was tampered with, the legs would not retract and would stay deployed. So ‘peace of mind campers’, whilst you may be away from your vehicle getting legless, your vehicle has legs and is the most secure on the campsite.
Another plus to the MA-VE system is the manual override. In the event of power failure, the system can be controlled with a manual paddle lever, so you are never going to be stuck onsite. The legs also power up automatically as well as down and with stainless steel drilled feet to prevent a vacuum, the feet will not get stuck into the ground. Also, if you try to turn the ignition on the motorhome and drive away, an alarm will sound and the legs will automatically retract.

Staying on the straight and narrow.
So… if you want stability, security, convenience or discreteness in your motorhome life, then MA-VE is the product you need to be installing. We have fully trained qualified agents throughout the UK, so if your motorhome is a Rocking, find your nearest UK agent now on our website and give them a knock, or a call.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time working at the show and meeting the motorhome fraternity. I’m also an outdoor ‘kinda’ person who enjoys the fresh air and countryside and do hope to be able to engage in the fun and frolics with a motorhome of my own in the future. I won’t be getting as carried away as some of my customers though and with or without a MA-VE, will try my upmost to ‘stay on the level’…!!

            Landen Burton