China isn’t a place you would immediately associate with VW Buses and the import restrictions until now have been prohibitive at best. Apparently, people in China love Split Screen Buses though and VW specialists Morecambe and Wize appear to have found a way in through the red tape…
Morecambe and Wize was started by Mark Ritson back in 2008; he’d bought a RHD Devon Camper for himself and decided to help fund it by hiring it out. When the Camper became fully booked, he bought a second, then third Bus, before branching out into importing and restoring Campers for other customers. Mark: “I bought a Bay and restored it, but ended up selling it before I’d even finished it, so I did another, then another…”
The trouble was that Mark found he needed to farm the Buses out to several different people, in order to get them restored correctly. This led to him taking on his first employee in 2010, which enabled him to begin handling things in-house. Fast forward to today and Mark now has a 16-strong team of dedicated specialists, handling an average of 24full-on builds a year.
With each Bus being blasted or dipped and going on to soak up between 850 and 1,300 hours work, Mark and his team continually strive for excellence and have introduced several slick manufacturing processes to make everything work as smoothly as possible. Mark: “Our Mission statement is: Continually striving for excellence and we try hard to always get it right.” The thing that makes the company unique, is that they offer several different stages of package builds, so the pricing is completely transparent and they offer a great warranty package.
Not content with selling Buses to the UK, international customers led to the company expanding to offer tailored packages, first to customers in New Zealand in 2014 and then to Australia in 2017 – Half of the Morecambe and Wize production is now for international customers. It was one of New Zealand’s entrepreneurial Chinese visitors that approached Mark with a Bus build in mind and the result is the Bus here.
This story is from the June 2018 edition of VW CAMPER & BUS.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2018 edition of VW CAMPER & BUS.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
T5 Buyers Guide
If you want a large, practical VW you can stamp your mark on and drive daily, perhaps it’s time you look at buying a T5? Here’s what you need to check
Germany Calling
Cycling and sight-seeing whilst taking in plenty of history along the way.
Village Bus
A RHD Barndoor Deluxe Bus is an incredibly rare and very desirable vehicle and Carl Elliott’s superb ’54 is perhaps the best example anywhere in the world!
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
As the saying goes, it’s only original once. Fortunately, this retired fruit pickers Bus had been left to ripen in a farmer’s barn
Family 'Wagen
What do you do when you have a kick-ass Ghia but a large family? Simple. You build a kick-ass Bay Window Microbus as well
Status Cymbal
When drummer Nick Robin’s AA card was taking too much of a beating it was time to visit VW Downunder
I Is For Industrial
While the best place for an air-cooled VW engine will always be in the back of a VW, the industrial variants have ended up in many unexpected places as well. Including a very big gun…
Still Doin' It
After a hard working life, three engines and two restorations, you’d think this Pick-up had earned its retirement. Not quite
The Freddy Files
Paul Knight whisks us along a fun-filled, 36-hour road trip to the Freddy Files show in Ninove, Belgium
Readers' Rides
Your pride and joy is our delight to share, so here they are
