One giant leap for Apollo

True believers: Luke and Karl Trouchet are pumping serious money into their motorhome business

Pic: GLENN HUNT

BRW Young Rich list members Luke and Karl Trouchet are bucking trends. At a time when inbound tourism numbers are down as the Australian dollar soars, the Trouchet brothers have announced they are investing $100 million to expand the campervan and motorhome rental fleet of their company, Apollo Motorhome Holidays.

The brothers, worth $70 million on last year’s Young Rich list, have also confirmed they are opening a new factory in New Zealand to manufacture campervans and motorhomes under their Talvor brand. Most Talvor vehicles are manufactured for Apollo, though they have begun selling the vehicles through car dealers in Brisbane.

The Young Rich list is dominated by people from emerging technology industries or high-flying hedge fund managers. But the Trouchet brothers – Luke 34, is Apollo’s chief executive, and Karl, 32, is chief financial officer – are proving young entrepreneurs can run companies in older industries as well.

“Tourism is bouncing back and a lot of travel companies have done well recently,” Luke Trouchet tells BRW. “And in terms of manufacturing, well, we’re out there looking for new sites to expand our existing factory in Brisbane.”

The brothers took over the family business in 2001, buying it from their parents in an arm’s-length transaction, when it had a handful of staff and about 50 campervans for rent.

In less than a decade they have built Apollo into a business across four countries – Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States – with more than 3000 campervans for hire (mostly to tourists on long-term driving holidays) and a manufacturing arm, Talvor, which launched in Brisbane in 2005.

Their latest plans are big: the $100 million will put a further 1500 vehicles into Apollo’s worldwide fleet during the next 12 months (some will replace existing vehicles) and 250 vehicles will be built at the New Zealand factory in the same time.

But Luke Trouchet is confident the strategy will be a success. “It’s really the bounce-back after the global financial crisis,” he says. “Last year we battened down the hatches because we kept reading the world was going to end. But now we don’t have enough supply to meet the demand out there so we are having to expand to meet it.”

BRW

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