35 Years of Just Kampers: Part of the VW Community Since 1989
We're celebrating 35 years of Just Kampers and looking back at the history of JK from 1989 to today.
We’ve grown from a small, specialist workshop into a global parts supplier over the last 35 years, without losing our love for Volkswagens or the VW scene, and that’s something we’re really proud of.
This article celebrates the incredible journey we’ve been on since 1989, but we wouldn’t be here without the support from all of you!
Quick Links
• Thank You from Mark and the whole JK Team
• 35 Deals to Celebrate 35 Years of JK
• An Interview with Mark Reynolds
• A (Relatively) Brief History of Just Kampers
• Show us your retro Just Kampers stuff!
Thank You from Mark and the whole JK Team
Hitting this milestone has been an amazing opportunity to take a look back at everything Just Kampers has achieved so far, and all of the people who’ve helped us get here, so thank you from the whole JK Team!
We really appreciate all the support we’ve had over the last 35 years, whether you’ve bought parts from us, chatted to us at shows, or even had your camper restored by us when Just Kampers was still a workshop.
Mark Reynolds, who set up Just Kampers on 1 September 1989, wanted to pass on the following message of thanks to all of you:
“I want to say a huge thank you to all of our friends and customers who have supported us over the years, whether you’ve just bought a few bits or you’ve been with us from the start.
“I share a birthday with Just Kampers, so it’s amazing to look back at setting up JK when I was 22 and seeing how far we’ve come.
“We wouldn’t be here without the support of our friends and customers around the world, or without the hard work of the whole JK team, who are all real assets to Just Kampers.
“I’m looking forward to seeing JK keep going from strength to strength, and hope to see a lot of you at different VW events during the rest of this year and into the future!”
35 Exclusive Deals to Celebrate 35 Years of Just Kampers
You can get great deals on a huge range of different parts and accessories, as we celebrate 35 years of JK!
These deals are available from 00:00 on Sunday 1 September 2024 until 23:59 on Sunday 8 September 2024, and cover a huge range of different parts for different vehicles.
You'll find great deals on everything from brake conversion kits and window fitting bundle kits to automatic fire extinguishers and luxury vehicle covers.
To see the full range of exclusive deals, just click here.
An Interview with Mark Reynolds
We caught up with Mark Reynolds, who set up Just Kampers back in 1989, to ask a him a few questions about the early days of JK, what he was doing before he set up Just Kampers, and a few other questions which had really interesting answers.
Can you give us a brief overview of how and why you set up Just Kampers?
Back in the Summer of ’89 my wife, Kerry, and I were about to set off on an epic adventure to drive from London to Cape Town in South Africain in our 1972 VW T2 Bay. But all best laid plans change, we cancelled the trip and set up JK on 1 September 1989.
I’d been working at Henley Beetles and I did not want to compete against them so we said we’d just do VW Kampers… So called it Just Kampers.
What were you doing before you set up Just Kampers?
I’d worked at various automotive businesses, including a rolling road garage called Phegre Engineering, and Autocavan which is now part of GSF, then lastly at Henley Beetles.
When I was really young I worked at McDonalds and had the full set of stars on my name badge!
How many VWs do you think you’ve owned in your life so far?
It’s well over 200 at this point. I did once write a list that got to 170 and that was years ago!
Some of the cars we had are now on display at VW in Wolfsburg, Germany, which is great. Others are as far away as USA, Australia, Malaysia, and Japan.
Do you know how many VWs you guys repaired while Just Kampers was a workshop?
No, sadly not! We don’t have the old accounts any more.
But we had up to six people in the workshop, so it was a lot of vehicles. Sometimes at shows, old customers show me the handwritten invoices from the early 1990’s – my writing was more legible back then.
How did Just Kampers move from being a specialist workshop to a parts supplier?
I do love a bit of ‘Time and Motion Study’ and I noticed mechanics and welders hanging around waiting for parts to fit. So I thought ‘we should stock the fast moving parts to stop the wasted hours’ and the rest, as they say, is history!
How many parts does Just Kampers stock now? And how many of those are exclusive to JK?
So we carry just over 10,500 different products, from over 230 suppliers in over 25 different counties. Of the 10,500 about 650 are unique to Just Kampers.
When did Just Kampers start making its own parts and accessories?
Really early on, probably 1991!
The first item was J10672, we had to make 50 and I thought ‘could we sell that many?’ Many thousands later they still sell!
You’ve been running Just Kampers for 35 years now, but who else has been part of the JK Team for a long time?
Pete Dempsey only ‘popped into a cuppa tea’ right as Just Kampers was getting started, almst on day one, and has been part of both Just Kampers and my family ever since.
Ian Brown and Tim have each been part of the JK Team for 21 years.
Chet has been with us for 18 years, but was with us when we had the workshop too, so really it's more like 23 years.
Our sales director, Shaun, joined us 17 years ago.
I looked it up just now, and the average JK Team member hass been at Just Kampers for 8.5 years!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank for their support along the way?
Kerry, my wife, for selling her £200 Fiat 128 to help fund Just Kampers on day one.
And the very loyal team at JK and owners in the VW community who have made Just Kampers such a success.
A (Relatively) Brief History of Just Kampers
Just Kampers has been on an amazing journey over the last 35 years, starting in a tiny workshop and evolving to become a leading supplier and producer of parts for a whole range of VWs!
JK got started back on 1 September 1989, when Mark Reynolds spent his 22nd birthday setting up JK as a small repairs and restorations garage in Bagshot, Surrey.
Mark had been passionate about Volkswagens for years at that point, and had been working on them for a long time, but couldn’t set up Just Kampers before he was 22, as he couldn’t get motor traders insurance before then!
We moved quite a few times in the early years, to give ourselves more room to work on more vehicles, and JK really began to evolve from a workshop into a parts store in 1993, when Mark discovered a cave full of NOS Volkswagen parts while on holiday in Malta with his wife, Kerry.
Dedicated Parts Shop
By 1997 we’d opened a parts shop in North Camp, Farnborough, which we were filling with parts salvaged from scrap yards in California by Mark and Pete Dempsey, who has been with Just Kampers almost since the beginning.
This was a really busy few years for us, as Just Kampers Insurance was set up in 1998. We'd been struggling to find decent insurance cover for our campervans, and realised that we were far from the only ones, and so Just Kampers Insurance was created as camper insurance specialists.
Moving to JK HQ
Our new focus on parts saw huge success, and by 1999 we’d taken up as much space as we possibly could in our North Camp shop, and moved to Odiham, Hampshire where we are today!
When we first arrived we were only taking up a small corner of the converted WWII aircraft hangar, and never thought we’d fill the space.
Since then, we’ve grown and expanded time and again until we take up almost the entire hangar! The only space left is occupied by the guys who create our Preservation Parts metalwork for us.The move out to Odiham saw the end of Just Kampers as a workshop repairing and restoring vehicles for customers, but there was clearly a huge demand for the parts we were offering.
Growing Our Range
Now that we didn’t have to worry about not having enough space, we were able to design and create a huge variety of different Just Kampers exclusive parts and accessories, from seals and metalwork to accessories like awnings and thermomats.
Just Kampers has changed a lot over the years, and we want to thank you all for being part of the journey over the last 35 years, whether you had your VW worked on by Mark and the team in the early 1990s, or you’re a recent customer who’s bought the parts you need to keep your Volkswagen on the road and ready for adventure.
We wouldn’t be celebrating this 35-year milestone without you, and we’re looking forward to the next 35 years of Just Kampers!
Show us your retro Just Kampers stuff!
If you've got some cool old 'stuff' from any point in our 35-year history, then we'd love to see it!
Whether you've got an old Just Kampers t-shirt from the 1990s, you still have one of our old stickers on your camper, or even just an old Just Kampers invoice in your stack of paperwork, it would be great to see it.
Send us an email with a photo or two to jkworld@justkampers.co.uk, and with your permission we'll share on our Facebook and Instagram pages!
