History

1989...
Mark Reynolds, with his wife Kerry, started Just Kampers.

Based in Bagshot, Surrey, the business was initially set-up as a 'one man band' workshop repairing VW Campers. The workshop was so small, that with the doors closed, Mark could not work on Campers, which was less than ideal in bad weather.

1990...
Just Kampers moved to bigger premises in Farnham, Surrey. The workshop could hold six Campers - unfortunately, the old people from the Nursing Home next door did not share our passion for old Campers!

1991...
Business at Just Kampers was thriving, yet our neighbours at the Nursing Home made us look for a more suitable location.

1992...
We made the inevitable move from Farnham to Farnborough in Hampshire. We had the down stairs of this building and a three-car workshop at the rear. This was a happy time for the company, where we grew very fast.

1993...
The first import of parts. Whilst on holiday with Kerry, Mark discovered a 'treasure trove' in Malta. There was a closed down VW dealer who still had the stock locked up in a cave! Having discovered the find in 1992, Mark returned and bought a container load of the best parts back in 1993.

1994...
Bare metal restorations were the 'flavour of the year', with a shot blasted inside and out full restoration of a 1967 Split, being the most complete restoration undertaken by JK.

1995...
1995 saw an attempt to find another Malta treasure trove. Having found a 1959 VW Dealer map with every dealer in Europe marked out, Mark began a trip to see if they were still in existence and if they had old treasures gathering dust. A few thousand miles later, it was decided that Malta was a bit of a one- off and running the workshop paid the bills better than treasure hunting!

1996...
Whilst looking for old VW parts, we stumbled across a VW Breakers yard in Holland and imported good, clean, second hand body panels for Splitscreen and Bay window Campers. The company had been hoarding the parts for 20 years+, so unfortunately the supply dried up fast!

1997...
We started to stock more and more parts, to keep the workshops busy, which led to JK becoming a parts business, initially from a small shop in North Camp. When we took it on, we thought we could never fill it, however, it was not long until we had outgrown not only the shop, but the four shipping containers we had wedged into the rear car park, and the offices above not only our shop, but the next door two shops as well.

We made our first trip to VW Mexico to import Beetle and Camper parts.

1998...
We soon discovered that our customers preferred to shop via mail order so, as a result, more space was needed to enable us to extend our mail order offer.

1999...
Mark and fellow director Pete discovered a VW scrap yard in Germany! This was a place where VW recycled their slower selling parts into scrap material. Mark says: "It was almost unbelievable, there was about 10 acres of leaking warehouse in former East Germany, full of what VW saw as obsolete parts. We bought 18 forty foot artics with stock in over about three months, the only snag was where to store it!"
This is when Just Kampers moved to our current home in Odiham, Hampshire.

2000...
We continued to expand, including opening a scrap yard in LA so we could have a constant supply of good used parts such as doors!

2001...
Scrap yard closed after Dale, the manager, ran off to Vegas with Marlene, and the money he was supposed to buy stock with! At the same time, we started to import more parts from VW Brazil and it no longer became economical to sell a second hand door or engine lid, when a new one was just as cheap!

2002...
Expanded the warehouse to include our neighbours units! Developed our camping range and started manufacturing our own camping products.

2003...
Online trading becomes a regular experience and from an occasional online order, we started to have 20% of our business via the internet.

2004...
Neighbouring businesses became nervous as we needed more space! In the end, we paid two companies to relocate, so we could expand into their units!

2005...
We see more and more parts becoming obsolete and we invest heavily in tooling up to produce the parts ourselves. This is an ongoing project as the vehicles become older and the parts harder to find.

2006...
We have one last warehouse expansion, as we had run out of neighbours to relocate, so we turn what was a covered driveway into another 7,000 square feet of warehouse space. This gives us some elbow room to expand into!

2007...
2007 saw us run out of office space, so we expand into the barn offices about 200 metres from our warehouse.

2008...
As we enter our 20th year of trading, we have expanded our range so that VW Beetle owners can benefit from our huge range of products, fast delivery and sensible prices. JustBeetles.com launched on September 1.

2009...
JK brings back manufacturing to the UK. The year the £ pound collapsed, this gave us a great opportunity to rethink our purchasing policy, and we made the move to bring back as much of our manufacturing as possible to the UK. Suddenly the 'cheap' package tour holidays don't look like such a bargain. The imported "rust free" vehicles are no longer being imported, which is helping keeping the price or your VW up! With oil dropping by $100 a barrel, 25 MPG doesn't look so terrible, especially when you find that you can drive your VW for something like 140,000 miles before it's used up the same amount of energy as it takes to produce a new car. Perhaps it's time to go 'back to basics', to enjoy all the UK has to offer and get out and take part in all the things nature has to offer for free. For JK the emphasis has been on developing our websites during 2009, with online insurance quoting being a big break through.

2010...
To celebrate UK manufacturing we have put a ‘Union Jack’ flag next to UK made products in our 2010 catalogue. We believe there has never been a better time to celebrate ‘all things British’ and enjoy a holiday here rather than rushing abroad. To help you make the most of ‘Staycations’ we have introduced an all-new Camping range for this year…