Campervan converters help raise £1.1m for Children in Need with ‘des res’ on wheels

A campervan conversion company worked for free to create a ‘des res’ on wheels - and helped raise £1.1m for Children in Need.
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Wellhouse Leisure in Barnsley spent a month fitting out a Toyota Proace Matino with all mod cons before it was promoted in a prize draw watched by millions.

Children in Need was on November 13 but the draw only closed a few days ago, and by then the total had reached £1,134,580. Nationally, the appeal raised £41m.

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Wellhouse founder David Elliott said he leapt at the opportunity after being contacted by the BBC.

David Elliott of Wellhouse Leisure with a des res on wheels.David Elliott of Wellhouse Leisure with a des res on wheels.
David Elliott of Wellhouse Leisure with a des res on wheels.

The £49,000 van was supplied by Toyota and his company turned it into a four-berth camper with kitchen, fridge, sink, cooker, double bed, pop-up roof containing another double bed, heater and solar panel.

It was bundled with ‘Staycation Goodies’ - kayak, bikes, surfboards and sledges - and tickets to campsites, theme parks and wildlife attractions. Toyota also ran fundraising at its locations across the country.

Mr Elliott said: “We pushed it through production and managed to get it down to the BBC studios at Elstree and it was live on the show in front of 15 million people.

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“We sat down in the first week of lockdown thinking ‘are we going to get through this?’. That was followed by record sales and then our campervan in front of millions of people and raising a small fortune - all in the space of eight months.”

Publicity after the prize draw.Publicity after the prize draw.
Publicity after the prize draw.

The Children in Need mission came shortly after Wellhouse had moved from West Yorkshire to larger premises in Barugh Green, Barnsley.

Founded 18 years ago, the owner of the factory they were in decided to sell up in June, forcing the Wellhouse to relocate, David said.

At the same time, the boom in staycations due to the pandemic had put the firm on track for a record year, so they moved to premises twice the size.

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He added: “Although this has been a shocking year for many people as a campervan manufacturer we are on track for a record year as we have doubled the size of our factory, taken on five more staff and will be taking on five more over the next few weeks.”

“Normally we would be booked up for four months but now we’re looking at August 2021. We have had record sales this year and broken every record: most sales in a day, in a week, in a month etc.

“We will probably open two more productions bays as we now are going to sell via Vauxhall and Toyota dealers so we probably need six more staff.

“What a year it’s been!"

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