Photo: Contributed
It is the 10-year anniversary of Traveland RV in West Kelowna.
The West Kelowna recreation vehicle dealership will officially celebrate 10 years under the Traveland RV banner on June 1. It was on that date in 2013 when Art and Faye Pike sold Westgate RV Centre to Langley’s Dale Howes. The purchase of the West Kelowna store marked Traveland’s first expansion, and now the company is cruising right along with six locations throughout Western Canada.
“It all starts with our owner, Dale Howes,” West Kelowna Traveland RV general manager Tyler Steel, 36, says. “He has attracted and retained very good people over the years. For myself, I started at the company when I was 18 years old. I started in detail, and I was given opportunities along the way.
“He invested in us when we were young, dealing with all the stuff that young people do, and now he’s reaping the rewards, where he’s got a lot of young leaders in the organization.”
The Pikes purchased Westgate RV Centre in 1979, which was two years after Howes and a couple of partners bought an RV dealership in Abbotsford called Collier’s. Howes built Traveland RV in Langley in 1988.
The merger between Traveland RV and Westgate RV Centre allowed the West Kelowna location to grow rapidly. It had about a dozen employees when it was bought, and now there are as many as 75 during the busiest times of the year. The showroom has undergone a major expansion, and a brand new service centre has been built over the last decade.
Traveland RV is now hiring for multiple positions, and Steel says working under Howes and the rest of the team is one of the biggest perks. It’s a family-run business, and the employees are treated that way, making it a great place to work.
Westgate was known primarily for selling high-end motorhomes, but as Traveland it sells everything from small family trailers right up to more than $800,000 luxury RVs. If you want a certain kind of RV, the team at Traveland will deliver.
Business continues to boom, with Steel noting it has been a strong start to the year already after RV shows in both Calgary and Vancouver. The summer will be here before you know it, and more people will be hitting the road thanks to the industry’s boom in popularity that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And if you’re thinking of buying yourself, Traveland RV is currently running its Scratch ‘n’ Save promotion. You could save between $500 and $1,500 of your purchase.
Steel says the last 10 years have gone by in the “blink of an eye,” and he’s excited to see where the journey takes them over the next decade. If the last 10 years are an indication, it will be going nowhere but up.
“It’s been growth ever since,” Steel says. “The staff, the volume, the technicians … We’ve just been expanding ever since.”
Learn more about Traveland RV in West Kelowna on its website.
This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Okanagan Edge.
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