HSV to move facilities

Holden Special Vehicles is moving house, signing a 15-year lease on an even larger factory and warehouse complex that will house the entire Walkinshaw Group on the one site.

Property management group Propertylink announced the 15-year deal with Premoso, a branch of the Walkinshaw Group that produces the HSV range of Holden Commodores under licence for Holden.

It said Premoso would move to the new site on the corner of Whiteside Road and Main Road, Clayton South, on September 1 next year. The new site is close to HSV’s existing home base at Rayhur Street, Clayton, and features three freestanding warehouses with large concrete aprons.

It will house Walkinshaw’s growing list of businesses that includes the Australian distributorship for Indian carmaker Tata, the Walkinshaw Automotive Group that modifies other Holden products such as the Colorado trade ute, and the recently announced joint venture with Epping-based New Age Caravans that will work on developing cutting-edge camping products. Walkinshaw also contracts its design and engineering talent to other companies outside Australia.

The company’s Rayhur Street site also houses the Holden Racing Team, which will become Walkinshaw Racing next year as the HRT mantle is handed over to Triple Eight Race Engineering’s pair of Red Bull Racing Commodores.

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Walkinshaw Group director Ryan Walkinshaw confirmed the deal in a post to Twitter. “Great to announce that we have signed a deal to move the whole Walkinshaw Group to a newer, bigger and more advanced facility next year!” he said.

“Propertylink said it was “delighted” to enter into a long-term partnership with Walkinshaw Automotive Group.

“Walkinshaw is an iconic presence in Australian motorsport and is a global leader in the design, engineering, development and marketing of performance vehicles,” the company’s chief executive, Stuart Dawes, said.

Premoso is believed to have renewed its licence with Holden last year to use the HSV name, an important sign of faith for Walkinshaw in the wake of the carmaker saying it would end local production of the Commodore – and HSV’s feedstock – in late 2017 and replace it with a rebadged European-designed mid-size car.

Holden has said performance versions of the Astra hatchback and the Insignia mid-size car (that will become the next Commodore), will be badged with its logo. Signalling Walkinshaw will need to do something special with its portfolio of modified cars in an import-only future.

HSV will sign off on the Commodore with a 476kW bang, resurrecting the GTS-R badge for the last time on an eye-popping, locally made Holden-sourced car.

Walkinshaw Group has openly admitted it has been in talks with other brands since 2014, aiming to widen its portfolio of performance-enhanced products beyond GM-based products alone.

Walkinshaw’s move into caravans comes as no real surprise: HSV’s former engineering director Joel Stoddart left briefly to head up the design arm of caravan maker Jayco. He’s since returned to the Walkinshaw fold.