Castles, Moats and Motorhomes: Catherine Bunn on 19 Years of Growing a Business on Her Own Terms

Now, today I've got Catherine Bunn, who's the managing director of Highland Campers Limited and also the director of Campolux Limited.

Catherine, thank you so much for joining me on the show.

Hi, Brenda.

Thank you for inviting me along.

I don't know which one to start with first.

We'll go with Highland Campers Limited.

Tell me what it is that you do there.

Who's your customers? What are you providing?

Highland Campers is the limited company name for Highland Camper Vans.

It's the brand we trade as.

And Highland Camper Vans is a motorhome dealership on the outskirts of Inverness.

So we started off 19 years ago with Camper Van Hire.

And then we expanded it, expanded so that we're now we do retail sales and servicing and actually we stopped hiring last year, 18 months ago.

So now it's just purely motorhome dealership sales and servicing.

Motorhomes are very popular these days, aren't they? Post COVID, I think they got really popular, didn't it?

There's been a steady increase.

I think they've perhaps got more visibility in COVID during the COVID times, just because perhaps it was a way for people to safely travel out and about.

But I think people are more aware of their leisure time and how they spend their leisure time and the reality of waiting till you retire to go and do things and achieve things.

A lot of us have realized that actually you see colleagues and friends and family members, unfortunately passing away or having major life impacting illnesses.

And actually, if you wait for your retirement, it might never come.

So we just have to make the most of every weekend and every spare time that we have.

And a camper van is a great way of achieving that and having some time out and making the memories as you go rather than waiting to the end.

Now, today I've got Catherine Bunn, who's the managing director of Highland Campers Limited and also the director of Campolux Limited.

Catherine, thank you so much for joining me on the show.

Hi, Brenda.

Thank you for inviting me along.

I don't know which one to start with first.

We'll go with Highland Campers Limited.

Tell me what it is that you do there.

Who's your customers? What are you providing?

Highland Campers is the limited company name for Highland Camper Vans.

It's the brand we trade as.

And Highland Camper Vans is a motorhome dealership on the outskirts of Inverness.

So we started off 19 years ago with Camper Van Hire.

And then we expanded it, expanded so that we're now we do retail sales and servicing and actually we stopped hiring last year, 18 months ago.

So now it's just purely motorhome dealership sales and servicing.

Motorhomes are very popular these days, aren't they? Post COVID, I think they got really popular, didn't it?

There's been a steady increase.

I think they've perhaps got more visibility in COVID during the COVID times, just because perhaps it was a way for people to safely travel out and about.

But I think people are more aware of their leisure time and how they spend their leisure time and the reality of waiting till you retire to go and do things and achieve things.

A lot of us have realized that actually you see colleagues and friends and family members, unfortunately passing away or having major life impacting illnesses.

And actually, if you wait for your retirement, it might never come.

So we just have to make the most of every weekend and every spare time that we have.

And a camper van is a great way of achieving that and having some time out and making the memories as you go rather than waiting to the end.