With these type of marketplace businesses, you have to go for the 'land grab' first. Intergration will naturally occur over time, however there's only a limited window of time where you able to be the dominant provider in a marketplace.
The PaulCamper acquisition was a strategic masterstroke imo. Likewise with the NZ acquisition - this was opportunistic back in 2021 but just look at some of the booking numbers, website visits, and average Booking Values coming through now. Great acquisition and I can see this recent one being the same.
Europe was always a bigger beast to try and become the #1 or #2 player. From readings it appears Justin had been in discussions with PaulCamper since 2019. There was always the risk for Camplify of how they were going to dominate Europe when they are on the otherside of the world. Requires a lot of energy, time (and distractions from Australiasian growth) and eventually a lot more capital to keep the momentum.
Now there's another founder on board to lead the way in Europe - build the operations, manage the support teams and all under the Camplify model that has been working so well in Australiasia. I understand that the Camplify 'backend' systems, payment systems, ID verifications are far more advanced than PaulCampers - and this may have been one of the key reasons why PaulCamper had such a low take rate per transaction versus Camplify - seen more of a 'classified' for RV owners, rather than an all in one system to handle many of the other complexities that goes with managing transactions between an Owner and Hirer.
At the same time this acquisition allows Camplify to eventually become a Managing General Agent (MGA) which on it's own is a very large step in Camplify's ability to customise/standardise/streamline the existing insurance contracts but also create new insurance options where they are able to clip the ticket For example - Travel insurance being able to be added on.
P.S. Been fun watching the share price just get taken for a ride lower during this SPP open period. Someone wants to get it more towards the $1.70.
CHL Price at posting:
$1.79 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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