It seems like yesterday when I think about it, back in May 2013 the Rock and I travelled to Hamilton to be at the Leisureline Caravan factory with the whole team to celebrate the 1000th caravan to come off the production line. At that time the factory had 36 employees, founders Colin and Merilyn Bates ran the business, son Wayne was the Factory manager and daughter Liz Office Manager.
Quite the achievement at that time, for the family business, originally started by founder Colin Bates as Ohaupo Caravans in 1989. At that time Colin had worked from 1971 for caravan manufacturer Tek Jessen, building the well-known Lightweight caravans, now world-famous in New Zealand.
Between 2013 and now the company has expanded again, by 2017 they moved to double-the-size manufacturing factory space, in 2018 chassis redesign raised the chassis and
