{"id":500441,"date":"2026-02-24T06:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500441\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:59:14","slug":"essential-caravans-buys-zone-rv-but-customers-left-short-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500441\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential Caravans buys Zone RV, but customers left short-changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deal to salvage collapsed Queensland luxury caravan manufacturer Zone RV will leave more than 100 customers about $10 million out of pocket.<\/p>\n

The company went into administration<\/a> in December owing $42 million and was put into liquidation in January.<\/p>\n

Melbourne-based Essential Caravans has purchased Zone RV’s assets from the liquidator and luxury vans will continue to be built at the company’s Sunshine Coast factory.<\/p>\n

But existing customers who had collectively paid millions of dollars in progress payments have been frozen out of the deal.<\/p>\n

Some people had paid more than $160,000 towards caravans that had not been built when Zone RV collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Zone RV’s new owner Jamie Johnson says he will scrap the progressive payment system. (ABC News: Kyle Harley)<\/p>\n

Essential Caravans director Jamie Johnson said while he felt “sick in the stomach” for customers who lost money, he could not carry their debt.<\/p>\n

“It just wasn’t possible to keep the business alive and take on the obligations for the customers,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some of them we can accommodate fully, but some of them have obviously paid a substantial amount and the business just can’t sustain being able to absorb that going forward.”<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said he would contact affected customers “the minute I’m allowed to under the agreement”.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands the deal was worth about $8 million.<\/p>\n

Olive branch to customers<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said he would offer affected customers new caravans at cost price.<\/p>\n

It means customers who only paid a 5 per cent deposit have the opportunity to purchase at a substantial discount on the retail price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conversely, those who paid $150,000 towards a $200,000 caravan face paying an extra $160,000 to secure their item.<\/p>\n

Customers may only get a few cents on the dollar through the liquidation process once the administrators, secured creditors and former employees are paid.<\/p>\n

In a liquidation, customers are classified as unsecured creditors and rank last on the priority list, along with suppliers.<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said he would scrap Zone RV’s previous practice of forcing customers to make progress payments.<\/p>\n

\"caravans<\/p>\n

Zone RV’s new owner hopes to re-hire former employees and resume previous production levels of building 10 caravans a week. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Old contracts stipulated a 5 per cent initial deposit followed by two large progress payments and a final 20 per cent due on completion.<\/p>\n

“That will not happen going forward,” Mr Johnson said.<\/p>\n

“You’ll pay an industry standard 10 per cent deposit on placing an order and no progress payments \u2014 nothing else until your caravan is ready.”<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said family members based on the Sunshine Coast would help to run Zone RV, which would remain based in Coolum in the long-term.<\/p>\n

He said former Zone RV chief executive Adrian Toft would be employed in a marketing role across the Zone RV, Essential Caravans and Design RV brands.<\/p>\n

Mr Toft told the ABC in December that Zone RV had been in a “strong position” when he left in June 2024, although the company’s audited financial report shows a $4.75 million loss that year.<\/p>\n

Liquidator sharpens focus<\/p>\n

The liquidator, Cor Cordis, will now shift its focus to investigating former Zone RV director David Biggar, who is accused of illegally trading while insolvent<\/a> as far back as 2023.<\/p>\n

Cor Cordis alleges Mr Biggar breached his duties as a director and has reported its concerns to ASIC<\/a>, the corporate watchdog.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Zone RV founder and director David Biggar. (YouTube)<\/p>\n

Cor Cordis partner Rahul Goyal said the sale to Essential Caravans “ticks all the boxes” and had vindicated the strategy of maintaining a skeleton staff to deliver vans during the search for a buyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While keeping the business trading, the liquidator oversaw construction of more than 40 vans for customers since December, which cleared at least $6 million off the creditor bill.<\/p>\n

“Shutting the business down on day one would have been a poor outcome for customers, employees and creditors,” Mr Goyal said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He thanked the staff who worked through the turbulent period after the collapse.<\/p>\n

“Their efforts were instrumental in demonstrating the strength and viability of the business to potential buyers,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Goyal told creditors in mid-January that he hoped to announce the new buyer within a week, but the process had dragged out. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson described the negotiations as a “frustrating” experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s what happens when you’ve got administrators, lawyers, advisers, so many stakeholders all trying to make sure the outcome is correct,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s never as simple as anyone expects, so it’s a frustrating process.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sale will settle on March 6, with another creditors’ report to be sent in April.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted Mr Biggar for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deal to salvage collapsed Queensland luxury caravan manufacturer Zone RV will leave more than 100 customers about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,251778,251771,181487,251770,251776,181482,180508,180506,180507,251775,213446,251774,251773,251777,251772],"class_list":{"0":"post-500441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-caravan-industry-australia","12":"tag-caravans-australia","13":"tag-david-biggar","14":"tag-essential-caravans","15":"tag-who-bought-zone-rv","16":"tag-zone-rv","17":"tag-zone-rv-administration","18":"tag-zone-rv-caravans","19":"tag-zone-rv-collapse","20":"tag-zone-rv-essential-caravans","21":"tag-zone-rv-liquidation","22":"tag-zone-rv-new-buyer","23":"tag-zone-rv-new-owner","24":"tag-zone-rv-news","25":"tag-zone-rv-sale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}