mbrace living in motion celebration sun friendsaliveness hand in hand commitment difference

106 Pages·2016·15.13 MB·English

TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS
MOVEMENT GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE
COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW
TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION
LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION
CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT
DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION
KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING
HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION
CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT
CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE
CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION
TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT
GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION
DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER FUN
NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE
VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND
COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER
SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING
HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS
ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE
DRIVE MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP
PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL
COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE
DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE
MOTIVATION DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRECISION PARTNER
50 Years of Adria Brand
FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL COURAGE FREEDOM
Inspiring adventures for ffy years
ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS MOVEMENT GRATITUDE
DISCOVERY CONTRIBUTION HAND IN HAND COMMITMENT DIFFERENCE IMPROVEMENT CHANGE COOPERATION NATURE DRIVE MOTIVATION
DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER WEATHER SATISFACTION KNOW‑HOW TEAMWORK COLLEAGUE CRAFTSMANSHIP
PRECISION PARTNER FUN NAVIGATION PLEASURE ADVENTURE DESTINATION LEARNING HOLIDAY RELIABILITY COMMUNICATION TRAVEL
COURAGE FREEDOM ENDURANCE VISION LOYALTY EMBRACE LIVING IN MOTION CELEBRATION SUN FRIENDS ALIVENESS
50 Years of Adria Brand
Inspiring adventures for ffy years
.
Contents
6 About the Number 50
9 About Olden Times
15 1965–1975: Birth
25 1976–1985: Growth
37 1986–1995: Maturity
47 1996–2005: Rebirth
61 2006–2015: New Horizons
79 About the Caravans
95 About the Motorhomes
113 About the Mobile Homes
117 About Research and Development
125 About the Design
135 About Memories
145 About the Distributors
173 About the Numbers
177 About the Tourism of the Working Classes
181 About People
187 About the Adria Mobil Group Today
206 In the Authors' Words
About the Number 50
For us the number 50 is not some ordinary number, as countless to remember, and for all others who have in any way been touched
stories, memories, work achievements, hopes, creations, development, by our brand name to remember. Adria's path, namely, as any path in
50 design, labour, innovations, efforts and much much more is hidden life has not been always a primrose path. But we could and did unify
within this number. The number 50 means for us simply a success. to preserve a healthy core and to get only the best out of it. And that
It means the right way. The right choice. It signifes Perseverance. best has been throughout the years enriched, upgraded with the fnal
Knowledge. Power. And we are very proud of all this. All of us and result this brand name, which today is considered as one of the best
the generations before us. Let this number represent to the future in the caravanning industry. Even more: we have become a global
generations a shining example of our reputation, as nothing comes out brand name, already known on three continents.
of nothing. Nothing is self-evident. We all know this. And that is why
the number 50 is not just an ordinary number for us. Or in other words: Thus we can face the future with optimism and with our feet frmly on
number 50 are us, the employees and our business partners as well, all the ground, as on the basis of 50 years of experience we know what
who have ever had any business dealings with the Adria brand name, success means. It means fnding a solution, whenever a problem
as without a single member of the family we would have never been arises. It means to keep on pushing, when the only logical alternative
able to reach the number 50. We all together and every single one can would be to desist. It means to say Yes, when everyone else says
be very proud of being a part of this beautiful caravanning story, which No. It means to let the inner power and feelings of success take over.
has enabled (again the number 5 but this time accompanied by many And we all know that we can. For us and for the future generations,
zeros!) over 500.000 users in 50 years to experience the beauty of who will continue creating the Adria brand name after us. Let this
caravanning. anthology book be their guide and their textbook. Let they exceed us
as the best students exceed their teachers.
This anthology book thus refects the birth, growth, maturity, rebirth and
new horizons – or simply put, the life of our Adria brand name. And it 50. I see the whole world inside. What about you?
is only appropriate and right that the most important facts and some
individuals as well are exposed and their stories put on paper. For us Mrs Sonja Gole,
General Manager of Adria Mobil
7
About Olden Times,
Innovative Ideas and Visionary People
Whenever we think about olden times, which have left an indelible imprint
on the giant success story, we wish with the help of all available facts
to imagine how it all really started and what it really took to come all the
way from modest beginnings to a long-lasting success story. Were the
beginnings easy? Diffcult? Impossible? In all probability, they were not
easy, but with the proper people they became ˝only˝ challenges and thus
also the greatest problems turned into solvable, controllable and beatable
solutions. In the following article we thus present the facts, which can
help us describe the story regarding the olden times, innovative ideas
Jurij Levičnik
and visionary people, while also realising that the best, the most heart-felt
transformed a small
workshop into a big story is surely written by the people who have created it.
industrial company.
The Slovenian pioneer in the caravan feld was Mr Miloš Jevšček from
a well-known family of carpenters from Grm, who in the sixties headed
a carpentry company Opremales. In 1960 he had the idea of having
It all started with
his own caravan for fun and his own needs – the frame was made
an idea, which was
according to his own drawings in the Kovinar company in Kandija, while
followed by a drawing the chassis was welded together by Mr Stane Lisac. A year later the frst
series of twenty perfected caravans were made at Opremales, and a
done on a scale of
year after that, another ffty more which were then also patent-protected.
1:20 displaying the
shape of the frst At that time the former IMV (the Industry of Motor Vehicles) faced serious
Adria caravan, the problems regarding the import of certain raw materials. »Whoever
wanted to produce anything more interesting and demanding, for
legendary Adria 375.
example cars, was mercilessly dependent on imports, as at that time
with the exception of strategic raw materials you could not purchase
It took just over two anything else in our country,« says, among other things, Mr Marjan Ivan
Moškon, the author of »A Story about a Giant from the Gorjanci,« (1974),
months to produce
while a similar thing was also confrmed by Mr Lukšič, MSc, in the book
the frst prototype of
»My Story Is Adria« (2005).
the Adria caravan.
9
All the historic sources quote one glaring fact, namely, that Adria was
Even the longest
created as a consequence of a very pragmatic solution to looking for
journey begins with a
a source of foreign currency, which had to be found in the beginning
single step. Engineer of the sixties and seventies of the previous century by Yugoslav
Martin Sever, who importers. From this entirely unromantic reality some very romantic
stories began to be made especially regarding the tremendous
designed the caravan,
enthusiasm, which thus drove the machine engineer Mr Martin Sever,
drove over two a great visionary from Dolenjska and Mr Jurij Levičnik, the leading
thousand kilometres man at IMV at that time, on the path of developing Adria's frst
Martin Sever
caravans.
to deliver the caravan developed a
completely new
to the trade fair in
product – the Adria Thus in the spring of 1965 both of these two men started to exchange
Stockholm. caravan. experiences, and Mr Sever started to build IMV's frst sample caravan
for a well-known buyer in Sweden – Karl Willhelm Karlsson. In some
two months a frst prototype was made, named ADRIA 375. From
here on the story is already well-known – it was about a legendary
journey by the engineer Mr Sever to Stockholm, where the caravan
was displayed at the local fair.
The frst part of the task was thus carried out, while what followed,
was searching for many improvements, which would satisfy Swedish
customers, and which would also mean a step away primarily from
caravans, which had already been made in the United Kingdom –
which would specifcally be stronger insulation, a safer chassis
Swed Karl Willhelm
and, last but not least, a reduced weight. This task was solved the
Karlsson recognised
following year by Mr Martin Sever and his colleagues in a satisfactory
the potential in
way. Based on the very popular type of caravan OPIA in Sweden,
Adria and became
the frst sales the OPATIJA caravan was constructed in 1966, which opened the
representative for door widely for Adria to the Swedish market. Where did the key for
Adria caravans. success lie? According to offcial sources, that lay especially in the
»torsion suspension, with which we had had a lot of success with
delivery vehicles…« Which is also somehow logical, as the caravans
production belongs in essence to the automobile industry.
11
Assembly line for windows in Novo mesto
Mr Stanislav Lukšič–Luka joined the team of development engineers
and technicians at the end of 1967, at that time still a trainee engineer,
who with his knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication undoubtedly
contributed a lot to many past and present successes of the Adria
brand name. At that time, at IMV they extremely bravely began the
development path of caravans and already in the seventies, they
started to dictate the tempo to other European producers. Thus IMV
was the frst to introduce double glazed glass on the windows of its
caravans, followed by warm water central heating in bigger caravans,
which came as a huge innovation in 1972 for every other producer in
Europe. This catapulted the Adria brand name onto the very summit
Lacquering of a caravan
of the biggest European caravan manufacturers. But our story had
only just began.
Caravan at the quality Assembly line for caravans in Novo mesto
control
The caravan industry gave rise
to extensive technological and
economic development in the
Dolenjska region and Slovenia.
A view of the caravan assembly line Kitchen block modules from Semič
12 13
The World Events Which Marked the Decade
First Decade
The sixties of the previous century were marked by the After 1970 both world superpowers, the USA, as well
cold war tensions betwen The Soviet Union and NATO as the USR, were economicaly weakened. In 1973 1965–1975
alliance. At that time the war in Vietnam also broke out, the frst so-called oil shock occured, which is today
while the situation in Cuba came to a boiling point. The considered the end of the golden age of capitalism or
BIRTH
symbol of the cold war became The Berlin Wall, which prosperity, which had lasted since 1950. The whole
was built in 1961, thus dividing Berlin into the Eastern world was enveloped in the crisis, which showed itself
and Western parts. in the West in the form of stagnation, and in the East
in many unsuccessful reforms, which later lead to the
These years were marked in Yugoslavia by huge implosion. In 1974 in Yugoslavia a new constitution with
economic reforms, as in the beginning of the decade a famous Law on Associated Labour, which should set
the so-called little reform or new economic arrangement, the basis for the uninterrupted mutual operation on the
which was based on changes in the foreign currency, unifed Yugoslav market, was introduced. All energy was
external commerce, credit and banking system, was supposed to be directed towards the self-managing
introduced. Already in 1965 another new reform transformation of the economy.
was accepted, which was even named the deepest And There it Was … a Caravan
intervention in the Yugoslav economic system since the In the sixties and seventies the world was also shocked
beginning of the ffties. It was about a change of course by natural catastrophies, while on the other hand the 1965 – The story of the Adria caravan, whose name becomes
towards the market economy and at the very same young and old went crazy over the British band the synonymous with spending free time on the Adriatic Sea, begins in
time it was a sort of a call to develop »self-management Beatles (their common path ended unfortunately in 1969) 1965 in the Industry of Motor Vehicles (IMV) in Novo mesto. There
and direct democracy,« but all these reforms only and the Rolling Stones, who are still present on the are several stories regarding the beginnings, but certain names
exacerbated the economic and social conditions; music scene today. The frst man walked on the moon and facts appear in all of them: the idea and the decision about the
this reform had only negative effects on Slovenian (1969). The Aswan high dam in Egypt was fnished, development of a new product within IMV was accepted by Mr Jurij
companies. while the northern tower of the World Trade Center in Levičnik, a long-time director and also »a giant of progressive ideas,
New York became the highest building in the world. economic thoughts, hard work and respectful results«. The engineer
The year 1968 became very turbulent. The so – called Joe Fraizer beat the reigning champion Muhammed Ali Mr Martin Sever, who is called by people in the know as »the father of
»Prague Spring« occured in Czechoslovakia, which lead to (former Cassius Clay) in the boxing »duel of the century« the caravan«, was at that time in charge of the development centre
an invasion by Soviet troops, as well as troops from other (1970). »Black September« hit Germany (1972), when at at IMV and together with his team of engineers and technicians
Warsaw pact members. Its occupation thus lasted until the Olympic Games in Münich a group of Arab terrorists – constructed the frst prototype of the Adria 375 caravan, which was
1990. Europe itself was rocked by student demonstrations, Black September – kidnapped and assassinated 11 later sold to Sweden. After the product's initial coordination and
which were the most radical in Belgrade. During this Israeli sportsmen. The Watergate affair in the States adaptation for the Swedish market, an order for 500 caravans for
period, the president of the Slovenian government Stane caused the resignation of the American president a well-known Swedish buyer, Mr Karl Willhelm Karlsson, who also
Kavčič, who had come to this position a year earlier, Richard Nixon (1974). became an important link in the development team at Adria, a long-
and who was also known as »the father of the national term business partner and an importer for the Swedish market, was
economy«, played a very important role in the Yugoslav There were a little over 3,3 billion people living in the placed. In the meantime they brought a caravan made by their own
and Slovenian economy. Namely, he was a persistant world at the beginning of this decade… producer Osby, named Opia, to Novo mesto, with whose analysis
defender of the market economy and of national interests. the development team at Adria deepened its knowledge with the
Kavčič made many enemies and due to this, a strong
political process against him was in the wings.
15
fnal result being the Opatija caravan, already made in 1966. Soon
The Adria Caravan Takes over Europe
afterwards they started to develop new prototypes of caravans under
the management of the enginneer Mr Sever: model Adria 305, model
Adria 380 and model Adria 450 – they were all shown for the frst time The success in sales of Adria caravans after 1968 was undoubtedly
at the Belgrade car fair. due to the sensible selling point: »a light and well-equipped caravan
At the end of the
at an affordable price«, as well as the fact that the success would
The aforementioned three prototypes were developed and produced year 1966 a Swedish be ensured only under the condition if they managed to quickly and
in the factory and soon afterwards the frst generation of Adria tourist travelled effectively adapt to the existing needs of the market. IMV was thus
caravans, having been made on the basis of the aforementioned among the frst caravan producers, which started with innovations like
through Novo mesto
three models, was created; al three prototype caravans had the double glazed windows, central heating, central run-off drain…
with one of the frst
same shape of the frontal and rear wall, while the bent part of the roof
remained different with the models on the frst three lenghts of the IMV caravans ever
bodywork. The typical oval external look of the caravan has its origins produced –
here.
the Opatija.
The new IMV caravan going for a
test drive (1966). The factory needed
approximately two years to prepare
for the production of caravans.
The frst 300 units, which were pre-
ordered, were
sold in Sweden.
The caravan was
constructed in
the factory and
one sixth of the
materials used
for production
were imported.
16 17
The oval-shaped
exterior and white-
coated aluminium
surface were two of
the typical features of
the frst generation of
Adria caravans.
The frst prototypes of Adria
caravans were introduced to the
public at the Belgrade car fair.
1969 – The production plan for this year predicted 10.000 units and
the Adria brand name showed Slovenia, as well as Yugoslavia and
Europe itself that it was not to be taken lightly any more. Caravanning
experts all over Europe started to take an interest in Adria caravans,
as well as in the factory, where these caravans were manufactured.
Thus they hosted scores of reporters and our importers and in this
way also presented the Adria brand name to the foreign public.
The production capacities at IMV according to the bold plans thus
became too small, and therefore a new production hall was fnished
in 1969.
The management started to realise the importance of the brand
name's promotion. For this purpose they took part at various fairs –
among others, they were regularly present at the Belgrade car fair,
and for the frst time they also took part at the biggest caravan fair in
Europe at Essen in Germany.
18