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Transporter Talk No 145
WORKSHOP WALKABOUT
Welcome to another NEW feature of Transporter Talk Magazine.
In this feature we take a look around somewhere that could be of interest to our members.
This issue we take a trip to Just Kampers in Hampshire to meet Mark Reynolds (pictured bottom left) and the Just Kampers team.
The visit took place in early February and the drive up to the JK HQ from the main road is a delight, surrounded by green elds and farmland, the place has a more relaxed and friendly feel compared to an industrial estate. Once on the farm, you know that you’re in the right place as the car park is littered with VWs old and new, owned by the JK team.
The main entrance to the building has an impressive museum style reception that houses some of Mark’s rarer VW’s, including an untouched Oval Beetle, original Rear Split Screen Beetle and an impressive SP2 import.
From here I had a friendly welcome into the JK o ce, which has a relaxed but focused atmosphere and I was taken through to meet Mark (and Benji the JK Labradoodle) where we chatted about Just Kampers and the VWT2OC.
Mark founded Just Kampers on his Birthday, September 1st 1989, as he couldn’t get motor traders insurance before he was 22 years old.
The business started as a ‘one man band’ workshop, specialising in the repair of VW Campers, at the Old Pump House in Bagshot, Surrey.
In the spring of 1990, around the same time that his son Josh was born, Mark moved JK into larger premises at Wrecclesham near Farnham in Surrey. The site had previously been used as a Rolls Royce service and repair shop and could accommodate up to six Campers. The business continued to grow and so did their neighbours cause for complaint. By 1991 JK was running nearly 24 hours a day and they had begun breaking old VWs in order to sell second hand parts, the beginning of their transition from workshop to parts.
In 1992 they moved to Farnborough, at the site where Farnborough VW operate from today. The new location provided more space, but a four star hotel and their residents were no happier with the 24 hour VW workshop than their previous neighbours were.
It was here that they found more and more customers were struggling to nd certain parts and decided to source them themselves and sell them from a small shop that was set up in the workshop.
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