SPECIAL : CARAVAN HISTORY
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The rise and fall of a
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CARAVAN GIANT
If Caravans International was still in business today, it would be celebrating its
50th birthday. Andrew Jenkinson charts the company’s history and legacy
1. Ci published
booklets promoting
caravanning, using
its own products to
do so
2. Early draft of an
advert for the newlyformed Caravans
International
3. One of Ci’s last
brochures – a 1982
Eccles leaflet
4. By the early 70s, Ci
Autohomes were top
sellers in the UK and
Europe
5. Fairholme was the
group’s luxury
touring brand. It was
dropped by the end
of 1983
6. By 1973 Ci had
appointed solus
dealerships – a move
that caused ripples in
the caravan industry
7. 2014 calendar
remembering the
heyday of the
caravan
8. By the late 60s,
the Ci wallchart read
like this
9. Ci’s caravanning
cook book
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B
ack in 1960, Sprite Caravans,
headed by founder and owner
Sam Alper, acquired the oldest
name in tourer manufacture –
Eccles. Sprite saw this move as
not only the best way to introduce more
upmarket models but also the ideal method
to increase its already buoyant market share.
At the same time in Poole, Dorset,
Bluebird Caravans, owned by Bill Knott,
was also reaping the rewards of the
caravanning boom. It wasn’t just tourers
that Bluebird built – holiday homes, mobile
homes and coachbuilt motorhomes all
came off the company’s production line.
The importance of Bluebird in the
re-emergence of coachbuilt motorhomes
cannot be understated. Coincidentally,
at that time the last company to
manufacture this type of touring vehicle
was Eccles in the 1920s. Knott had already
produced horseboxes and commercial
vehicle bodies, so the diversification into
coachbuilt motorhomes was a
straightforward one. In 1959, at a price
of just under £900, Bluebird proudly
unveiled its Highwayman motorhome.
MERGER MOVE
While Alper had watched Bluebird’s rise,
Knott had noted the growth of Sprite, and
both realised that a merger would not only
form a massive caravan concern, but also
put them in a very healthy position.
At first, reports of such a move were
denied by both parties, but in July 1963 the
merger was confirmed. The new company
was called Caravans International (or Ci),
with Alper its chairman.
The new business had massive buying
power, which not only enabled it to keep
production costs down but also gave it
strength to purchase manufacturing plants
in other countries – soon Ci caravans were
being built in South Africa, Germany,
Sweden, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and
America. Cardiff-based manufacturer
Fairholme Caravans became part of this
giant group in 1965 and suppliers
including Harrison (steel/plastics) and
OBI Awnings also became part of the Ci
consortium. At its peak, Ci was making
tourers, folding campers and motorhomes
all around the world.
In 1966, Ci moved to a new HQ in
Saffron Walden, Essex. The company
strove to have a parts system that no one
else could equal – items for all its tourers as
far back as the mid-1950s were stocked,
not only in the UK but on foreign soil, too.
Ci also cleverly saw the benefit of
promoting caravanning in general and
published a series of brochures – using its
own products as props, of course! The
company also produced towing guides and
a cook book, all of which kept caravanning,
especially Ci, in the limelight.
‘MOTORISED’ DIVISION
Not content with being the market leader
in caravan production, the company
developed such a range of high-top and
coachbuilt motorhomes that, in 1967,
a Motorised division was formed – in
the early ‘70s, this part of the business
became known as Ci Autohomes, with
production at Bluebird’s old Poole factory.
Within a couple of years, the company
employed a bonded sandwich
construction technique to produce the
sidewalls of its coachbuilts. So popular
were Ci Autohomes, they were even
exported to Canada.
While the company’s motorhomes,
holiday homes and mobile homes came
off the production line at Poole, the
Newmarket factory built Sprite and, from
1971, Europa, Fairholme and Eccles
tourers. Owing to its size, Ci could throw
thousands of pounds into research and
development as well as production
facilities. By the end of the ’60s, two new
tourers out of three sold were Ci-branded
models (mainly Sprite).
In 1966, the Ci group received the
Queen’s Award for Enterprise and Sam
Alper was awarded an OBE for his services
to exports. Knott left the firm in the mid
’60s and within a few years had started up
BK Holiday Homes in Dorset.
By the mid ’70s, Ci was a multi-millionpound business – however, trouble was
around the corner. Export markets had
begun to shrink, primarily owing to better
local competition, but Ci ploughed on. Its
US subsidiary began to lose money and
expensive new machinery for the UK
factory ate into company profits.
Although Alper’s general marketing
lured more people to caravanning, they
weren’t necessarily buying a Ci model. As a
result, Alper tried to persuade dealers to
sell Ci models only. In 1975 and 1976,
Alper advertised his Sprite range on
national TV, while Ci-badged caravans and
holiday homes were used exclusively in the
film Carry on Behind. The Likely Lads film
also featured a 1975 Sprite Alpine.
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TOUGH TIMES
As the ’70s came to an end, Ci’s market
share fell and sales were down, which
resulted in redundancies and sell-offs. The
company put a brave face on things but, by
the early ’80s, it was really struggling.
The group was sold off in bits, the UK
tourer division being bought by a number of
former managers of the company. Despite
being much smaller, the new Ci managed to
keep the majority of its dealerships.
However, just eight short years later, it too
hit a financial iceberg. Again it was saved,
but its name was changed to Sprite
Leisure – producing Europa, Sprite and
Eccles models, this company was bought
out by the Swift Group in 1995.
Alper never returned to the caravan fold
and sadly passed away in 2002. However,
his and Ci’s story is such an important one;
indeed, Ci was solely responsible for
changing the face of modern caravanning
and motor caravanning. It’s probably not
stretching the truth to say that without Ci,
caravans and the caravan industry wouldn’t
be where it is today. The company
influenced not just the UK market but the
rest of Europe and beyond, too. Indeed,
while the British Ci company is no longer
with us, the name lives on through the
Italian Caravans International. ■
www.caravanclub.co.uk
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August 2013 The Caravan Club Magazine
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