Outback Ultralight Trailers Factory Tour
Owner Joe Thoen Shows Off Calgary Fiberglass Towables
Nov 2, 2009
The Outback factory on the outskirts of Calgary, AB is in an industrial area well off the normal travel lanes. Despite its out-of-the-way location, there was a steady stream of customers during Suite 101's visit.
What Team Trillium Does
Owner Joe Thoen explained, "We build 4 to 6 new [Outback] units a month, but mostly our work is in restoration and repair, or upgrades to older trailers." So a lot of the people dropping in are looking for parts for older units, and a lot of the trailers out in the back are being rebuilt or restored.
As for the new units, Joe says, "The frames are made here in Calgary then shipped to our facility in Coaldale, near Lethbridge, where the fiberglass work is done (the labor cost is better there, and the lower population means that the emissions are less of a concern). The unit is mounted to the frame and then trucked back here for finishing. We have a crew of 7 here, with six in Lethbridge."
He looks around the showroom with its piles of boxes and equipment. "We've been so busy we're still trying to get organized. This is supposed to be showroom with a trailer in it. We haven't had a chance to get at it yet because I've been to Bigfoot and Okanagan when they went bankrupt and I bought a ton of inventory from them. As a manufacturer, I saw some good deals and I wanted that inventory here. So this stuff all belongs upstairs. That's something we'll focus on this winter; if we get a little bit of a slowdown we can make room and have a full-time display trailer here."
Joe says he's been in the RV business for much of his life, in a way. "My background is fiberglass. When I grew up in in British Columbia I used to build boats and stuff for Vanamera and Western Star. We used to do a lot of custom stuff for them. So all that led to the RV business. But we've been doing Outbacks since 2002."
RV Questions and Answers
What changes have you noticed in the industry over the past year?
I think people are more quality conscious. I think there's been a change in the industry. Big units to the more lighter weights for smaller vehicles. We've seen a surge in that in the last couple of years.
Have your sales increased, then?
Yes, they have. But we only build what we want to build. We're not looking to mass produce. We set a limitation of five to six trailers a month; that's all we want to build. We're not interested in building twenty or thirty trailers. We've downsized to accommodate just what we want to do, so we build just what we want to build during the year.
Is it all custom work?
Every trailer that's out the door is custom, there's not two that are the same.
Our new Outbacks are designed to be upgradeable; all the new units have wiring for solar power, for example.
What is the best thing about being in the RV industry? What makes it all worthwhile?
The satisfaction that people get when they go out, they take our trailers and they send us emails or they send us pictures of where they were and let us know that they've had outstanding trips.
We get a lot of referrals, so there's a lot of good feedback.
There's also the satisfaction of a well-built product. "I walk through every single trailer that goes out the door. Every trailer is inspected by me, personally. If I'm not happy with it, it's got to be changed or removed or replaced or fixed. I walk through every single trailer. I'm quite keen on quality and if it isn't how it's supposed to be, I'm there to straighten it out."
We sponsor a lot of the boleramas – the trilliums and these fiberglass lightweight travel trailers, they have a lot of these little gatherings every year and we sponsor trophies and door prizes and stuff. You hear so many good stories about people who have done things. You hear about some guy who modified his own toilet or built his own screen room. You get lots of positive feedback from these guys.
Do you camp yourself?
No…When I travel, I'm on the fly so I'm a hotel and plane traveler. It's kind of funny, people joke with me all the time about that.
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