Marden business is labour of love (From Hereford Times)

Marden business is labour of love

10:00am Thursday 16th July 2009 in

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A SMALL family of vehicles is driving a Herefordshire company’s bid to bring a much-loved brand to motorists seeking style and adventure.

Volkswagen (VW) camper vans have always inspired a sense of affection from their owners and it’s no different for Marden company Passage Unwritten.

In line with a tradition that has grown up through generations of camper van owners, the company has named each vehicle in its four-strong fleet.

“You can’t have a VW camper without naming it, “ says Mrs Stella Shepherd, company owner.

“We call our 1973 vintage van Ned and then there’s Mary Jane, Tinkerbell and Aria. With VW owners there is a real sense of community – it’s a huge family. They wave at each other and feel special when they drive a VW.”

Family plays a huge part in the company’s operation.

Stella says she could not do without the help of husband Steve at weekends and is also assisted by their children Rebecca, Emma and Alexander.

In fact, it was Rebecca’s interest in VW camper vans that provided the spark to set up the company.

“She always wanted a camper van,”

explains Mrs Shepherd. “We took one for a weekend to take her to university in Falmouth and became hooked. We noticed there were companies hiring the vans but they were all London-based and we said it was a shame that you could not experience this everywhere.”

Customers hire the vans for weddings, holidays and surfing trips, others so they can watch the sunset in a different location each day – it remains impossible to pigeonhole a typical camper van fan.

“There is a new breed of camper van people,”

says Mrs Shepherd. “We have had customers from all over, including Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

“The main selling point is what we refer to as glamourous camping – we call it ‘glamping’.

“We tend to find people want something different, quite unique and to get back to a time when the pace of life was slower.”

Although the vans often summon up images of 1967’s Summer of Love, they are thoroughly modern when it comes to being green. They can run on bio-ethanol and the company has a list of garages where this can be obtained.

Three of the vans are new. They are still produced in Brazil, where they are used as taxis, and are exported to England where they are converted into campers.