Lunar Caravans.....In Administration
- Thread starter Damian
- Start date
In May I read reviews posted by workers on a website that rates companies as employers. They were scathing especially the drive to complete caravans for delivery but with minimal regard for quality.
On the ball Damian 
See this https://www.leylandguardian.co.uk/business/142-production-workers-laid-off-as-preston-company-lunar-caravans-enters-administration-1-9881326
All is not yet lost. They have been there before. Hopefully the Administrators will sort out the finances and maybe find a new owner. Long term my concerns and thoughts rest with the employees and of course those who bought the product and may have future Warranty claim problems.
See this https://www.leylandguardian.co.uk/business/142-production-workers-laid-off-as-preston-company-lunar-caravans-enters-administration-1-9881326
All is not yet lost. They have been there before. Hopefully the Administrators will sort out the finances and maybe find a new owner. Long term my concerns and thoughts rest with the employees and of course those who bought the product and may have future Warranty claim problems.
Mel
Moderator
Hopefully a solution will be found. Thoughts are with the staff.
Makes you wonder how precarious the other big names are?
Mel
Makes you wonder how precarious the other big names are?
Mel
Thanks Dusty
Lunar had approved a warranty repair in our 1 year old Clubman back panel, looks like a phone call to the supplying dealer tomorrow, Although they were not going to do the repair, Sales of Goods Act, £250 paid on credit card so may have some support there, and speak to the people who were due to do the repair also, may be easier and quicker to pay for the repair ourselves and move the van on, wish we had kept our Senator,
Lunar had approved a warranty repair in our 1 year old Clubman back panel, looks like a phone call to the supplying dealer tomorrow, Although they were not going to do the repair, Sales of Goods Act, £250 paid on credit card so may have some support there, and speak to the people who were due to do the repair also, may be easier and quicker to pay for the repair ourselves and move the van on, wish we had kept our Senator,
Look to the. Consumer Rights Act 2015. Irrespective of the Lunar Warranty your contract is still with the Dealer . Press them very hard now for completion of the remedial works.woodsieboy said:
Also as you point out You also have protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
Best of luck Woodie.
Whilst my thoughts are with the workers laid off, I can not but feel anything other than contempt for the board at Lunar and perhaps some dealers who would have known. Administration does not happen overnight and yet they would have been selling right up to the 11th hour
grumpy2447 said:
Agree but don’t all companies do this too? You don’t stop trading before you go into administration and you don’t publicise it in advance otherwise you exacerbate an already difficult situation that could lead quickly into liquidation.
Absolutely Clive. Been there myself! You just have to carry on until the point of no return and then the proverbial hits the fan. Our Government were still signing new contracts with Carillion right upto the point of collapseotherclive said:
hmy:
This is the second time we have bought a caravan and the manufacturer has gone out of business soon after that. Just have to hope like the Avondale that nothing serious goes wrong as I would be reluctant to rely on the dealer or Barclaycard who I used for the deposit if things go wrong.
Parksy
Moderator
I fear that this latest closure will become symptomatic of a general downward trend in caravan sales that will start to make itself felt across the industry before too long.
For reasons that I and many other drivers consider to be highly debateable, the government has been emboldened to demonise owners of larger diesel powered vehicles, the ones that they encouraged us to choose in the first place, to the point whereby car manufacturers are ceasing production of large diesel engined SUVs and 4x4s and sales have plummeted.
No suitable towing vehicles means that the government will decimate the British domestic leisure industry, manufacturers will cease trading and holiday parks and smaller sites will close or switch to glorified wooden garden sheds dressed up as 'glamping pods' or worse still, static caravans.
Eventually when the zealots fully get their way, the general public will be reduced to riding bicycles to and from work, and holidays will have to be spent inside small portable tents carried on the said bicycles, unless you happen to be reasonably wealthy.
Air travel will of course still be available for the zealots to jet across the globe to exotic conference locations in order to tell the rest of us how to live our lives while our manufacturing base vanishes.
I feel sorry for the workers at Lunar who face the prospect of losing their jobs, but I think that they will be the first of many.
Rant over!
For reasons that I and many other drivers consider to be highly debateable, the government has been emboldened to demonise owners of larger diesel powered vehicles, the ones that they encouraged us to choose in the first place, to the point whereby car manufacturers are ceasing production of large diesel engined SUVs and 4x4s and sales have plummeted.
No suitable towing vehicles means that the government will decimate the British domestic leisure industry, manufacturers will cease trading and holiday parks and smaller sites will close or switch to glorified wooden garden sheds dressed up as 'glamping pods' or worse still, static caravans.
Eventually when the zealots fully get their way, the general public will be reduced to riding bicycles to and from work, and holidays will have to be spent inside small portable tents carried on the said bicycles, unless you happen to be reasonably wealthy.
Air travel will of course still be available for the zealots to jet across the globe to exotic conference locations in order to tell the rest of us how to live our lives while our manufacturing base vanishes.
I feel sorry for the workers at Lunar who face the prospect of losing their jobs, but I think that they will be the first of many.
Rant over!
Dustydog said:Absolutely Clive. Been there myself! You just have to carry on until the point of no return and then the proverbial hits the fan. Our Government were still signing new contracts with Carillion right upto the point of collapseotherclive said:
Understood but normally these issues leak out and if a PLC company was involved then they would have to alert the city to potential problems by issuing a Profit Warning. First ever caravan for me and ironically it was my second choice but fingers crossed.
Update
As things stand the repairer we had organised to do our warranty claim will no longer do it,they claim they are owed money from Lunar and would want payment up front, additionally they are unsure whether parts, in our case, awning rail will be available, supplying dealer is saying not sure what is happening and they claim to have had no notification from Lunar, say they will contact me once they know what is happening. Will wait and see for a week, we are fortunate that the van is still useable and at this stage no holidays are affected,hope someone buys Lunar and as part of purchase agrees to honour existing warranties, shame as the caravan is just what we were looking for and up until now has been a joy to use, and no damp at first service.
As things stand the repairer we had organised to do our warranty claim will no longer do it,they claim they are owed money from Lunar and would want payment up front, additionally they are unsure whether parts, in our case, awning rail will be available, supplying dealer is saying not sure what is happening and they claim to have had no notification from Lunar, say they will contact me once they know what is happening. Will wait and see for a week, we are fortunate that the van is still useable and at this stage no holidays are affected,hope someone buys Lunar and as part of purchase agrees to honour existing warranties, shame as the caravan is just what we were looking for and up until now has been a joy to use, and no damp at first service.
Read the riot act to the supplying dealer and quote “The Consumer Credit Act 2015”.woodsieboy said:
Whether the Dealer gets paid by Lunar is irrelevant. For the sake of sounding like a parrot your contract is with the dealer!
I do not like to see working people being made redundant, it can hit families very hard, unfortunately the traditional working practices of the caravan industry will mean it will have far wider effect than the companies official figures may suggest. Traditionally building caravans is a seasonal business, and many of the production operatives are not full employees of the manufacturer but are often contracted just for the season, and have to bid for the work on an annual basis, so they will not appear on the manufacturer's books.
grumpy2447 said:Dustydog said:Absolutely Clive. Been there myself! You just have to carry on until the point of no return and then the proverbial hits the fan. Our Government were still signing new contracts with Carillion right upto the point of collapseotherclive said:
Understood but normally these issues leak out and if a PLC company was involved then they would have to alert the city to potential problems by issuing a Profit Warning. First ever caravan for me and ironically it was my second choice but fingers crossed.
Lunar are a Private Limited Company and if you look at the accounts for the period ending August 2017 their turnover increased, employee and dealerships also increased. Profits went down. But they reported that since the Brexit referendum they had been affected by the drop in the value of sterling, but so would most other UK caravan/motorhome manufacturers. There are some interesting dividend payouts, and also 12 month accrual payments are quite substantial. I suspect it was the old chestnut of diminished cash flow, reduction in buyers, and reluctance of suppliers and/or finance sources to support the company.
A pity as I always liked their caravans and the market now has one less UK player to retain competition.
Dustydog said:
Dealers will undoubtedly be adversely affected by this situation, and maybe some of them will close and not be offered opportunities from the other caravan/motorhome companies. Hopefully they don't do the 'double glazing " trick and close only to re-emerge under different name.
Interestingly you cannot see how much special accrual year on year is allowed for warranty claims. Well I couldn’t see it from the annual accountsotherclive said:grumpy2447 said:Dustydog said:Absolutely Clive. Been there myself! You just have to carry on until the point of no return and then the proverbial hits the fan. Our Government were still signing new contracts with Carillion right upto the point of collapseotherclive said:
Understood but normally these issues leak out and if a PLC company was involved then they would have to alert the city to potential problems by issuing a Profit Warning. First ever caravan for me and ironically it was my second choice but fingers crossed.
Lunar are a Private Limited Company and if you look at the accounts for the period ending August 2017 their turnover increased, employee and dealerships also increased. Profits went down. But they reported that since the Brexit referendum they had been affected by the drop in the value of sterling, but so would most other UK caravan/motorhome manufacturers. There are some interesting dividend payouts, and also 12 month accrual payments are quite substantial. I suspect it was the old chestnut of diminished cash flow, reduction in buyers, and reluctance of suppliers and/or finance sources to support the company.
A pity as I always liked their caravans and the market now has one less UK player to retain competition.
Dustydog said:Interestingly you cannot see how much special accrual year on year is allowed for warranty claims. Well I couldn’t see it from the annual accountsotherclive said:grumpy2447 said:Dustydog said:Absolutely Clive. Been there myself! You just have to carry on until the point of no return and then the proverbial hits the fan. Our Government were still signing new contracts with Carillion right upto the point of collapseotherclive said:
Understood but normally these issues leak out and if a PLC company was involved then they would have to alert the city to potential problems by issuing a Profit Warning. First ever caravan for me and ironically it was my second choice but fingers crossed.
Lunar are a Private Limited Company and if you look at the accounts for the period ending August 2017 their turnover increased, employee and dealerships also increased. Profits went down. But they reported that since the Brexit referendum they had been affected by the drop in the value of sterling, but so would most other UK caravan/motorhome manufacturers. There are some interesting dividend payouts, and also 12 month accrual payments are quite substantial. I suspect it was the old chestnut of diminished cash flow, reduction in buyers, and reluctance of suppliers and/or finance sources to support the company.
A pity as I always liked their caravans and the market now has one less UK player to retain competition.
Dusty,
No it was only 12 months for a period quite a while back now (2017). The latest accounts for 2018 were to be reported by end August 2019 so I guess it was the results of these figures that tipped the balance.
ProfJohnL said:
Redundancy anywhere is a hard pill to swallow particularly for long serving employees. I fully agree with your sentiments Prof.
I am not sure about the industry being seasonal from a production aspect, annual holidays excepted. In 2017 23,900 tourer units were built in the Uk , not all by Lunar.
Lunar did employee 152 “casual labour” . All laid off. Makes you wonder about zero hours contracts ?
Sorry Dusty if I did not make it clear, the repairer was not the supplying dealer but an authorised Lunar repairer nearer to us, they are the ones who claim to be owed money.
The supplying dealer has said to contact them later in the week for an update, I intend to then ask for repair, and as it is Consumer Rights Act 2015 I think it has to be at no cost to me, so dealer will have to collect and repair and return to me at no cost, although I then get in to what is a reasonable time to do this , I am resigned to losing the use of the van while repairs are done. But I ma sure there will be others with worse problems.
The supplying dealer has said to contact them later in the week for an update, I intend to then ask for repair, and as it is Consumer Rights Act 2015 I think it has to be at no cost to me, so dealer will have to collect and repair and return to me at no cost, although I then get in to what is a reasonable time to do this , I am resigned to losing the use of the van while repairs are done. But I ma sure there will be others with worse problems.
Mel
Moderator
As everyone is saying that any warranty work is the responsibility of the dealer then, provided the dealership manager put this in writing, ( preferably in blood) and there was a massive discount on the van, then MAYBE it is OK.
Not sure that I would buy one though.
Mel
Not sure that I would buy one though.
Mel
Mel said:As everyone is saying that any warranty work is the responsibility of the dealer then, provided the dealership manager put this in writing, ( preferably in blood) and there was a massive discount on the van, then MAYBE it is OK.
Not sure that I would buy one though.
Mel
I bought a brand new ABI from Swindon Caravans after they ABI had ceased trading. It was nearly 12 months old by the time I bought it. Swindon Caravans included a two year comprehensive warranty and I had a very large discount over the new price. I traded in for a new 2005 S5 Bailey and the ABI had just a small area of incipient damp near the top of the door. But overall Chipping Sudbury Caravans gave me a good trade in less £70 for the damp as ABI were sought after in the used market.
So these things don’t always turn out too badly.
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