Vintage Trailer Works of Dothan, Alabama, has outgrown its original building and is transitioning its business model from direct sales to dealer-based distribution.
The new space
The company recently moved from a 7,500-square-foot building to an existing 30,000-square-foot building in downtown Dothan on 6 acres.
“We were way out of space—for the last couple years we have been out of space.” Vintage Trailer Works President Damon Crunk said. “We want to get into building some bigger campers and the new building will allow us to do that.”
The new space, in an existing 1940s-era building, was empty since 2004 and required over a year and a half to transform. The company added everything from wiring and transformers to new fire suppression and drywall. The reclaimed building sits on half of the 6 acres, leaving additional room for future expansion, Crunk said.
The company used to build 12-14 custom-built trailers per month. With a new assembly line in the refurbished space, Crunk said Vintage Trailer should stay on track to produce 50 teardrop trailers per month as well as 10 Blackhawk model off road trailer/toy haulers and 10 Cosmic Cruisers, a retro-inspired trailer, a month.
Vintage trailer work will accomplish the production uptick by hiring eight more employees by year-end to bring the company total to 18.
The company is fortunate to be located near a school that trains aviation mechanics, Crunk said. Graduates of the school are often happy to stay in the local area and work on campers and trailers instead of traveling out of state to work on airplanes.
The new business model
Crunk founded Vintage Trailer Works to build vintage-style teardrop trailers with high-quality, modern materials.
“We build a quality product for a good price,” Crunk said. “We build our trailers with the best stuff we can get. We do our own coating on the frames and use the best wood available as well as thicker aluminum.”
At least one of the company’s trailers survived a tornado in Kentucky and was still drivable, Crunk said.
Eighty percent of the company’s business is off-grid, off-road teardrop trailers. The XTR is the company’s biggest seller.
The company once sold a majority of its inventory directly to consumers but is starting to enlist the help of dealers, Crunk said.
“We are talking to a rep agency who is going to add dealers as we can grow into them,” he said. “We do not want to add them too fast and have more dealers than we can supply. And we want the right dealers. We want people who care about the customer, who care about getting their customers backed to them fixed right. We want dealers with the right philosophy.”
Much of the company’s inventory is currently sold to consumers west of the Mississippi, Crunk said. Switching to a dealer-based model will help the company coordinate deliveries as well as build a more extensive dealer network to serve customers.
“We want to build a dealer network to the east of the Mississippi,” Crunk said. “It allows us to deliver trailers to a certain point, have the trailers detailed before the customers get them, as well as have a centralized service point if they need any service, warranty work or upgrade work done.”
Vintage Trailer Works will offer dealer packages with five color choices and specific add-on options rather than the custom work it produced in the past. The company hopes to have a network of 10 dealers by the end of the year.
The company has demo versions of their newest lines, the Blackhawk and the Cosmic Cruiser, which should be ready for consumers by the end of the summer, Crunk said.
Find out more about Vintage Trailer Works.
