Luke Sutton’s Drifta dream keeps growing with the latest expansion completed and more planned growth in the pipeline.
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What started out as a small business is his garage, has turned into one of the largest employers in Gloucester.
Between 2013 and 2016, Drifta Camping and 4WD had doubled in size, employing around 60 people, and according to Luke’s dad, John Sutton current employment is sitting at 70 with another 20 jobs expected to be created in the next 12 months.
John explained how the business needs to keep growing simply to keep up with Luke’s ideas.
When Luke comes across a gap in the market or a better way to make something, he puts a plan into action to figure out a way to build it.
Drifta began after Luke came up with the idea of making a portable camping box when working as a mule packer and guide for hunters and tourists in the cascade wilderness of North Western America.
He built his first camping kitchen in 1995 for his own use and after a few versions and a bit of tweaking, Drifta was born.
In November 2016, Drifta was named as one of the first recipients of AGL's Gloucester Independent Community Legacy Fund, receiving a funding boost to help with a major expansion of production and storage space, ultimately creating 20 new full time jobs.
John has been brought into the business to help oversee the expansion, with existing sheds being expanded and new sheds being built.
As fast as the space is created, it’s filled with activity creating a new product or alteration to the Drifta range.
“The AGL grant helped speed up the process,” John said.
“It helped get the expanding done sooner by providing the capital to get started.”
But the expansion is not near complete, with more plans to built more sheds when more funds become available.
Originally the company was modifying imported trailers, but as supply dried up, Luke decided it was time to start building their own.
So they needed room to build the trailers.
“He keeps creating new products and needs space to build them,” John explained.
A space is needed just for research and development, so when a customer comes to the factory with an existing trailer they wanted modified to Drifta’s products, there’s a spot for an employee to work on it.
Then there is the case of the canvas.
Luke wasn’t happy with some of the bags provided with the camping products he was importing, so he decided to make his own and a sewing room was built.
Then the products that required carry bags increased and so did the sewing room and with it, the number of employees in that area.
“I’ve never seen anyone in my lifetime who is so innovative,” John said.
Online orders started to pick up and space was needed to store all the merchandise and fill the orders, which also required more employees.
The orders are so frequent Drifta has its own daily postal pickup.
Another way Drifta was able to create jobs was to invest in machinery that takes up less room on the factory floor, providing space for more work stations for assembling.
John’s got quite the job as project manager in charge of all the expansions. He finds himself constantly reworking the space as things change and the business evolves.