Looking back on 2024: A year of growth and success

As we step into 2025, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the milestones and achievements that defined our 2024—a year that exceeded expectations and further fueled our passion for van conversions. 

From winning the prestigious FSB Service Excellence Award to completing our 40th van build and pushing the boundaries of innovation, it’s been a whirlwind. None of this would have been possible without our clients, past, present, and future, and our followers and supporters. It is your continued loyalty, support and shared love of vanlife that has enabled us to grow this business and find the success that it’s had. We’ve achieved a lot of goals over the last year but there have been some standout moments we’d love to share. 

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Federation of Small Businesses

2024 got off to an incredible start when we reached the regional finals for the FSB Service Excellence Award in February. What was already a remarkable achievement became even more memorable when we went on to win the National award in May!

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Our mission has always been to turn our clients’ campervan dreams into reality. Their trust inspires us to deliver an exceptional standard of service at every stage, from the initial inquiry to the completion of their build. So to be recognised and awarded for this is a significant milestone that reinforces our commitment and motivates us to continue striving for excellence.

Furthermore, we were privileged to be invited by the FSB to speak at their Business Bootcamp in September. As part of this bootcamp we joined a panel, which discussed how the FSB and becoming an award winner has helped our business grow. 

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Van builds 

Another huge milestone for us was that we started building our 40th van! 2024 was an incredibly busy year so we were really pleased to achieve this goal, thanks to the hard work of our exceptional team. 

We have consistently maintained high-quality standards in our conversions, even investing in a paint room in November to improve spray quality and efficiency. 

It was also a great year for innovation, improving our knowledge and skillset to create high-spec conversions. A key area we developed was our gasless/all-electric set-ups. With LPG becoming harder to source in the UK, we wanted to prioritise creating solutions where our clients can cook from electricity instead of gas. 

To facilitate this, we also focussed on developing more advanced 48v electrical setups, these systems can power everything from induction stove tops, appliances and cutting edge Wi-Fi systems with Starlink. 

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Clients

Pushing the boundaries of van conversions enables our clients to have the freedom to take their vans on the most amazing adventures. 

We have had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful clients this year, who are now off pursuing their dreams, facilitated by the vans we’ve designed for them. One client sold their house to travel full-time in their van, while for another couple their van has given them a place to live while they build a new home in remote Scotland. We’ve also witnessed our vans go on some incredible adventures across the UK and Europe. 

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We are always keen to inspire more people to explore vanlife, so in June we decided to host an open day for people to learn more about what we do. It was a great success, welcoming over 100 people interested in custom builds or seeking advice around self-builds. This is definitely something we hope to do again in the future!

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Business

Alongside van builds, other key areas in the business also evolved across the year. We rebranded our logo and invested in an overhaul of our website, which we then launched in July. We also grew our YouTube channel to over 32,000 subscribers and will focus on creating more engaging content throughout 2025.

A great starting point will be sharing how we get on at The Caravan, Camping & Motorhome Show at the NEC in February. Securing a spot at this show was a big goal for 2024 and we are really excited about it!

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Global impact

An area we don’t often talk about is our involvement with the B1G1 initiative. B1G1 members are part of a global movement that uses businesses as a force for good, helping to change lives just by doing what they do at work everyday.

To date, we have created 1,917 impacts globally including:

• Providing 759 days of life-saving clean water to families
• Protected 1000 square metres of forest from wildfires
• Provided 21 days of community support to older people
• Given 7 days of medical support to children in need. 

We are proud to be a part of this initiative and to know that every van we build makes a significant difference in the world. What impact will your van conversion create?

Future plans

To build on the success of 2024, we have some big plans for 2025!

First up is The Caravan, Camping & Motorhome Show at the NEC in February. We are really excited to attend this show for the first time and will be at stand 1056a in Hall 1 with our display van Gus. This will be a great opportunity to meet people in person, share our services and show people around one of our most high-spec builds. If you’re looking to attend, you can book tickets here and use our code EX1 for a discount! https://ccmshow.co.uk/

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We’ve also got some great builds planned for this year, with more VW Crafters and Mercedes Sprinters booked in. Most of our previous conversions are based on Fiat Ducatos, so this is a great opportunity to see how we can improve our designs across different base vans. 

Innovation is one of the cornerstones of our business and this year we plan on developing market-leading van conversions with a focus on electrics. Could an all-electric van be the future?

To enable us to push forward in this area, we intend on expanding our team; we’ve already filled one vacancy and have plans to create more opportunities soon!

Although our primary focus is building custom-made campervans, we also know this option isn’t feasible for everyone. This is why we plan on providing more resources and products for people looking to self-build. With the rise in self-builds, there’s a lot of information online, but it can be a minefield, so we want to provide clear, structured information to help people avoid mistakes and build out their vans efficiently.  

2025 is shaping up to be a really exciting year and whether you’re looking for a custom build or going down the DIY route, we hope Vanlife Conversions can be a part of your journey. Here’s to more adventures, more innovation, and more opportunities to connect with our incredible community.  

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