Escape Trailer has been manufacturing fiberglass travel trailers in the Lower Mainland since 2002 and has recently seen a boost in sales, seemingly thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and people hoping to get outside of their homes while continuing to physically distance.
Founded by a couple named Reace and Tammy Harmatuik, they built the company and wound up selling it to a private equity firm in 2018, which has been managing its growth ever since.
Their lightweight trailers—reminiscent of the Bolers and Trilliums of yesteryear, but modernized—range in size from 17 feet to 21 feet.
Each unit takes 2 weeks to build and is manufactured from the ground up, in the Fraser Valley. As they place their order, customers are able to choose from a variety of different layouts, fabrics, flooring, and hundreds of other options and add-ons.
Instead of selling through dealers, the company's business model is direct-to-consumer. They take pride in the level of customer service they're able to provide, offering what they consider to be "the most customizable trailers" in the market right now, at a price below what you'd pay for a similar product bought from a third-party seller who would be forced to mark it up.
The pandemic has seen demand for recreational vehicles go through the roof; according to the RV Industry Association, North American sales in March of 2021 were up 77% to last year. Escape has benefited from this boom, and the company now has a two-year wait time for delivery after customers order.
In the coming months they're aiming to ramp up production, hiring more workers in order to reduce that wait time back to a couple months, as was the case before COVID-19 and the surge hit.
Creating new jobs while also creating adventure on wheels. Pretty good.
