About East Coast Leisure

East Coast Leisure was formed in December 1998 by Nigel & Lynne Usher to give caravan & motorhome owners a genuinely friendly, personal service.

Prior to 98, for 15 years we had been carrying out accident damage repairs to motor vehicles in our own body shop. Over time, we found ourselves being asked more and more, to carry out work on caravans and motorhomes.

Being caravanners ourselves, having owned both caravans and motorhomes since 1984, we identified that there were limited options for leisure vehicle owners in our area and decided to apply our expertise to that field. It also became apparent that our facilities, although adequate for motor vehicle repairs, were not really suitable for caravans and motorhomes and so moved to rented premises on Canvey Island.

During that period we started to attend the outdoor shows, selling caravan and motorhome accessories from a 7.5 ton lorry and a free standing marquee. At the end of two successful seasons we realised that we needed more stock and a larger display area and so purchased a 40' articulated lorry. We had a 40' x 24' marquee custom built onto the side of the trailer, added a small free standing marquee to the side to increase our display area and ran both vehicles to the shows

2002

At the close of 2002 and armed with the retail experience gained from the shows, we identified the need to open a permanent shop to compliment the repair side of our business. We 'bit the bullet' and committed ourselves to leasing brand new premises, at Unit 21, Yardley Business Park, Basildon.

Over the Christmas period we built a mezzanine floor for our office and shop, and fitted out the workshop below to the highest possible standards. In order to seek approval for servicing and warranty work, we contacted all the major caravan and motorhome manufacturers in the UK and invited them to inspect our premises. We were accepted by all.

2003

2003 was a runaway success! Within 12 months we had outgrown 21, so relocated to units 26 & 27 where Christmas 2003 saw us repeating the construction of another mezzanine floor and we re-opened for business on 1st of February 2004

In September 2004 we acquired Essex Caravans on the A127, Arterial Road, Basildon and as well as a fine selection of quality pre-owned stock, we obtained a dealership with Elddis and are now their main agents.

2004

Meanwhile, 2004 was another good year for the shows and in November we purchased a 45 foot, double floored trailer, and had the marquee extended to 70 feet.

2005

In January 2005, work began on East Coast Leisure's website and 6 weeks later we were online. We then began work on our online shop but building a 'database driven' website incorporating 2500 items from 37 suppliers turned out to be a much larger task than we anticipated.

Consequently it took a lot longer than expected but we finally went live on July 26th.

Currently we have over 2000 caravan accessories and motorhome accessories available and we are adding further items daily. Our aim is to eventually make all of our stock available online

November 2005 sees further expansion as we become Main Agents for Fleetwood caravans and Adria motorhomes & caravans and we are now offering motorhomes for hire

2006

For the shows we have just added another 20 feet to the length of our marquee (90' x 24') giving us 2160 sq.ft of floor space.

February 2006 and we take on the main agency for Geist caravans.

"Touring's such a Pleasure when you Trust in East Coast Leisure"