Almost 100 staff have been laid off by a Hull caravan manufacturer after orders dropped off.
Atlas Leisure Homes has shed a quarter of its recently ramped up workforce after unprecedented staycation demand declined.
Managing director Steven McGawn believes it could be the start of a wider slowdown, however, others in the sector are still actively recruiting.
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Market leader in the static build sector, Willerby, had told of a structural change in the industry only last month, as huge investment pours into leisure parks nationwide.
Swift is also enjoying record-breaking growth in the wider touring sector, recruiting further too.
At Atlas, where it reported as recently as March how turnover soared from £37.9 million to £71.9 million in the year to September 2022 - an increase of virtually 90 per cent, Mr McGawn said staycation orders had produced a glut in the market.
Materials shortages meant caravans ordered a year ago or more were only now being delivered, with the cost of living crisis not helping. He added the result was that there was too much stock in the market while demand for caravans had waned.
Staff were told on Friday after a 30-day consultation.
Speaking to the BBC, the managing director, part of a secondary management buy-out that competed last year, said: "It's with regret that we've had to make these redundancies - we've been responsible about it and we've gone through the proper process. We considered going down to a three-day week but that would have been worse for many of our staff who are on minimum wage who would struggle to survive, they'd rather be made redundant so they can look for a job elsewhere.
"We're not the only ones making redundancies, we're in the news because we were the first but I know there's others who are going to lay off staff too. There's too much stock on the market. Twelve to 18 months ago there was a lot of pent up demand due to coronavirus so we were getting lots of orders in.”
Atlas opened a new production line and machine shop as it added capacity in the post-Covid boom. Since taking on the Sutton Fields site in late 2020 , more than £1 million had been invested, with employee numbers increasing from 279 to 430 year-on-year. Most had been added at the former McBride plant, while the office team has also been bolstered considerably at the Wiltshire Road head office.
"We build to order, at the time we couldn't get the materials so now those caravans are being built but the people who ordered them are under pressure because of their energy bills and so on. Other caravan makers build caravans and just try to sell them when the market's good but now there isn't the demand for the ones that are out there.
"We grew very quickly because of the staycations, but it's not our fault that people don't want to buy caravans anymore. We're a responsible manufacturer and employer, all the staff have been properly briefed throughout the process. We think what we've done has been right for them and for the industry.
"We've kept all four of our production lines open. Things might get better or worse but at least if they get better we can start recruiting again."
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