From hobby to high demand business, how Kiama locals started South Coast Van Fitouts

With their combined skills in cabinet making and carpentry, and a shared passion for fitting out vans, friends Callum Keyssecker and Chris Holmes had the perfect ingredients to start their business.

And their services are in high demand, with customers even coming from interstate.

"The demand is crazy. We're pretty much booked out til August, it's just out of control," said Chris.

"Most of our jobs are from around here, but we've even got a few people from Central Coast, from Queensland driving their van down, and we've got someone in Melbourne coming up."

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Although the business idea seemed like an obvious path for the two friends to follow, Callum and Chris said starting South Coast Van Fitouts was more of a "happy accident."

"We both had other jobs before this and we were just doing vans for friends and ourselves, so we've been doing it for a few years," said Chris.

"And then one day we were doing a van for a mate out the front of our house. And we had all these people stopping and saying 'this is so cool, you guys should do this as a business.'

"We didn't think much of it. But then we started an Instagram page and from there we ended up getting an overwhelming response from everyone.

"So we gave it a crack and were doing both of our other jobs at the same time until it became too much.

"Now that we're doing it, I don't know why we haven't always done this. And that's what makes it so good, we're doing our hobby as a job. I think everything sort of happens for a reason."

With interstate travel being made difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic, their skills have come in very handy. However even when restrictions ease, Callum and Chris are confident they will still be kept busy.

"When the business came to fruition, we never thought the demand was because of COVID, but we've had a lot of people ask if it helped us but we think in a sense it must have when people can't travel interstate," said Callum.

"I find that after COVID, we might get a bit quieter, but there's always that one group when you finish school that tries out the van life," said Chris.

"Then you have the older market who are retiring and want to fit out their vans too. We might get a bit quieter after COVID, but we know there's just always been a market for it down here."

An average day in the life of the new business owners involves coffee, walking the dogs, then arriving at their factory in Kiama at around 6.30am. From there, they're "heads down bums up for the rest of the day."

But having different vans and customers with different ideas means no two days are the same.

"Every van is different and there's always a unique thing we try and put into each van, which can sometimes bite us in the foot when we try and order certain aspects of the build. If people want a shower, the companies can sometimes also take about eight weeks to build those so there can be quite a backlog," said Callum.

"One person will be working somewhere in the van and the other will be up the other end of the van working, we try to not be on top of each other because a van is a small space to work in.

"But we actually have a blast together."

The biggest joy of their job? Seeing their customers happy with the end result.

"I love seeing everyone drive away so happy and stoked with their van. Seeing their Instagram stories about all their adventures is so sick that we can help people live their little dream," said Callum.

"With our previous jobs, sometimes as a carpenter it took six months to build a house so you don't get that satisfaction of turning something over as quickly as a van," said Chris.

"You would get that feeling about twice a year, but with a van, almost once every two weeks, you get that satisfaction of handing over a build."

To find out more about South Coast Van Fitouts, visit: https://www.southcoastvanfitouts.com/

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