By William Coleman
In the past I felt that the February NEC show tends to be a fraction less busy than October. This February’s show numbers were far from being low. On the opening Tuesday there were thousands of people at the show which had a positive effect for exhibitors.
One such lucky exhibitor was one of Europe’s number one leisure vehicle brands, Swift Group. It seemed like the much heavier footfall at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show really did help boost sales numbers for the leisure vehicle and holiday home manufacturer.
Early numbers are looking like the company has captured a notable market share from competitors across caravans, motorhomes and holiday homes, making it one of Swift’s best ever shows.
Nick Page, Swift Group Commercial Director, said: “We are pleased by the results of the Caravan, Camping & Motorhome Show, where sales surpassed expectations and an excellent footfall brought in visitors from all points of the customer journey.
“We attribute a great deal of this success to working hard to create an attractive purchasing
environment, through initiatives such as Supersure Insurance and Swift Advance finance, alongside our best ever show offers. With strong sales at both the entry and higher end of the scale, it has certainly reinforced our commercial confidence in today’s challenging market.”
Swift also saw some real success at the NEC in their holiday home sales, it may even have beem Swift best performance in holiday home purchases. The all new Vendee Lodge did particularly well over the 5 day event. This must have came as a bit of a surprise for Swift as the holiday home was actually launched at the Feb show.
Another trick Swift had up their sleeve at the show were the innovative S-Pod 6, which had a lot of heads turning. I must admit I do really like them and would love to spend a few days relaxing in the double decker holiday home.
The vans that made the difference at this year’s February show the Sprite, all-new Elegance Grande and Eccles 100th anniversary edition, while the Basecamp crossover camping vehicle remained as sought-after as ever.
The motorhome sector for Swift also have a few MVPs with the Swift Escape and Escape Compact ranges doing very well and as always the Kon-tiki had a consistently high sales number.
