Gerard Waldron (director TRACK) and Wayne Gason (MD Gason industries) jointly announced today that Track has acquired the long-standing Australian brands.
This deal, which will see these brands stay on our shores has been in negotiation since early December 2019 and the agreement transfers all the intellectual property for both the design/manufacture and marketing of both brands to TRACK.
Under the agreement TRACK’s, OUTBACK HQ showroom and service centre, will provide ongoing service and parts for both brands and warranty services on behalf of Gason for all Gason manufactured products.
Wayne Gason said “As a board we have assessed it over the past year and being a family owned business of 75 years in October – we felt we wanted to come back to our core business in Ararat.”
Gason has recently made significant investments over 6Million dollars within its core businesses and concluded now was the time to concentrate its resources there hence the decision to find a buyer for its RV businesses.
He went on to say — ‘we just felt Track was that right business, they are family owned, building high quality products like Trakmaster and Pioneer and we just see this as the best fit in Australia to take these products forward and develop them into the future. Waldron said “the Australian RV industry was already on notice 12 months ago that the federal RVSA legislation would bring light trailers into a similar compliance scheme to that existing for cars and trucks. The challenges of this and the slow economy were already drivers of industry consolidation. TRACK recognised this and was already seeking opportunities to expand its offering. The opportunity to acquire these two highly regarded brands with compatible design and production systems seemed ideal.”
Waldron said “new Trakmaster & Pioneer models would be released in 2021 but in the meantime OUTBACK HQ has stock of 2020 models available for immediate sale.”
Waldron added “clearly the Covid-19 was not part of our plan, but in common with everybody else we are dealing with it as best we can” “at present both our showroom and production facilities are open and operating, with additional hygiene and social distancing. We may be required to close in future and we will be hibernating as many other businesses.
Like many individuals and businesses we are enormously grateful for the various government assistances we are eligible to receive, especially the ‘job keeper’ scheme, which will help TRACK ensure it has the skilled and experienced staff already on the job when this crisis has passed, as it inevitably will pass.
TRACK and OUTBACK HQ are still at work, with a strong forward order book we have plenty of work for now, but like most in business we are hoping for sales to continue throughout the crisis, even if at a diminished level for now.
Obviously we have staff on hand and enthusiastically ready to deal with customers remotely. You will see our web and social media being continuously updated, so there is likely something new each time you visit.
We are also well set up to receive customers at OUTBACK HQ’s large showroom, with a ‘ no touch environment’ including already open doors, hand sanitiser and staff who can get the message across, without breaching social distancing, so we are delighted to see you in the showroom as well.
Finally OUTBACK HQ’s Service Department has been expanding to support two new groups of customers as we add Trakmaster and Pioneer to the stable, joining Cub and TRACK. All four brands will be supported with the same range of services including: trip preparation, routine service & repairs, upgrades and crash repairs. We are in the unique position of owning all the designs, past and present, for the 3 of the brands and working closely with Cub, the manufacture of the 4th, so that we can recreate from original drawings any crash damaged parts and restore your van to original condition.
The OUTBACK HQ service department is working and can even arrange pick up and drop off of your van should you prefer to stay at home. Now is a great opportunity to get ready for the post crisis holiday you deserve.
