Ryan Walkinshaw has never been afraid of taking on a challenge, back in 2010 at age 23 he took over the family business having now turned it into a global leader in the design, engineering, development, and marketing of performance vehicles in Australia and the UK, known as the Walkinshaw Group.

As CEO & Director, Ryan takes a hands-on approach to running his business always looking for ways to diversify, with five brands now under the Walkinshaw Group banner consisting of HSV, New Age Caravans, Walkinshaw Andretti United, Walkinshaw Performance, and Walkinshaw Sports.  

Given Morris Finance’s 11-year partnership with Walkinshaw Andretti United and the groups’ ongoing success, we thought it would be opportune to catch up with Ryan to discuss how the Walkinshaw Group have diversified, the ramifications of CV-19 on the team, and his vision heading into 2022 both on and off the track.

Q/ Where do we find you Ryan?

I’ve just come out of quarantine in Sydney since travelling back to Australia from my home base in Monaco, where I still have a number of business interests. CV-19 has caused enormous uncertainty in society, but Europe seems to have handled the vaccination rollout more efficiently and vastly than Australia. 

Q/ How has the Walkinshaw Group diversified over the past few years?

With the decision by Holden to move production offshore and export product from GM, that created a need to pivot, to which the Walkinshaw Group were able to negotiate conversions and direct distribution of products given our expertise in engineering. This also led to partnerships with ATECO, RAM, the GM products under HSV, and now our new partnership GMSV, as well as with Volkswagen. 

With New Age Caravans it’s no secret that the caravan and leisure industries are booming in Australia, that’s been good for us. We’ve increased our production to 10 Caravans a day and we’ve got an order book that goes out for well over 12 months now, which is something we’ve never had before in the history of the business. We currently do 2,500 units a year, and our biggest issue at the moment is we’re trying to find out how we can increase production because our order books are so strong and we don’t want to turn customers away. This isn’t the ideal situation but given our problem-solving history, where there’s a will there’s a way!  

For the Walkinshaw Automotive side of the business, we will do about 9000 units for the year, to think when we were back doing HSV, we were producing around 3000 a year, so there has been some impressive growth in the last few years. 

Whilst CV-19 has been tough, they say that “out of every crisis comes opportunity” and Ryan is forecasting that the overall group will push out 12,000 units in 2022, ambitious but achievable given their expertise and quality-driven ethos.

Q/ Can you talk us through the WAU team changes and your thoughts on the future direction of the sport in F22 and beyond?

At WAU we are fortunate enough to have a team of committed and highly competent staff working for us both on and off the track. We’ve had a pretty incredible growth story for this industry in Australia and our recent success in Supercars has led to some really impressive talent wanting to join the team.

The introduction of two new drivers in 2020, namely, Chaz Mostert, an extremely successful, well-credentialed, and uniquely appealing driver who has just signed a multiyear deal, as well as Bryce Fullwood, a talented young driver that has enormous potential being mentored by Chaz, they’re now developing into a formidable force. 

Whilst CV-19 has affected the V8 Supercar season, WAU has still managed to be extremely competitive, this was shown at the latest V8 Supercar round in Darwin last weekend with Chaz claiming victory in Race 12 as well as scoring the most points of any driver for the round.  Whilst Queensland teams had an advantage of not having to pack up and travel in uncertain times, WAU still maintained consistency and it was pleasing for Bryce to be racing back home again with his family, friends, and supporters out in force.

Going forward into Gen3 there’s a lot of uncertainty and exactly what the new changes will look like, but there is uniform clarity around a desire to further improve supercars over time. For us there will be some big questions on which brand to go with, do we go with one of the two current brands, or do we move to a new brand. Gen3 will be introduced around mid-next year with testing starting in August this year.

Q/ Take us inside the COVID-19 bubble that existed last year and seems to be eventuating this year? 

The ramifications of CV-19 last year had a profound effect on the V8 Supercar season and for WAU it meant that the team was required to spend 107 days on the road together, without families and not knowing where they would be based from month to month. Whilst the situation was harrowing at times, the resilience and professionalism of the team enabled them to develop a bond that will resonate for times to come.

Q/ What other business interests do you have in both Australia and Internationally?

I have quite a few business interests eventuating at the moment, we have a sporting goods wholesale company, Walkinshaw Sports, a hedge fund company that focuses on cryptocurrency, its returns have been good to date, and it looks very promising indeed. In conjunction with these interests, we are also looking at how we can use our expertise in manufacturing and engineering in other industries, such as agriculture and medical. 

With the exponential growth of the business, we are also looking into larger state-of-the-art facilities which will bring all the businesses under one roof, ultimately improving efficiencies. 

Q/ You seem to be an innovator of sorts, what do you put that down to?

Some of that comes from my family of course, but I also think it comes from looking at what your key assets, strengths, and skills are, and the reassurance of knowing that we are great at solving problems. We’ve been doing that for some time now with the largest automotive companies in the world and now we’re just trying to use the same skills, same philosophy, transferring them into different markets, because if we can do it in the automotive industry, we can do it anywhere else.

Q/ On a personal note, please share with us what your favourite music is and who your favourite sporting team is?

Whilst I’m not much into bands l do enjoy DJs, having been one myself in Ibiza back in the day, with my favourite international DJ at the moment being Stephan Bodzin, take a peek at his work. 

In regards to my favourite sporting team, it would be criminal of me not to say the Gloucester Rugby Club in the UK are at the top of my list, as our family owned the team and l was previously Chairman of the club.

I must also add the Geelong Football Club to the mix as well, with my initial introduction to AFL and the Cats eventuating through Nathan Murray, Managing Director at Morris Finance. Nathan has been kind enough to host and educate me on your fine game that is AFL. 

Finally, we see Morris Finance as a true partner of the Walkinshaw Group and the relationship we have developed with his team has in no small way been instrumental in our business success, so we look forward to many more years of evolution together, united as one.

To keep up to date with the Walkinshaw Groups’ latest news and updates head to walkinshawgroup.com  or their LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram pages.