Tilly: Welcome to another episode of Two Minutes with Tilly. Today I’ve got the pleasure of meeting my mate Mark from Retreat Caravans. Mark, how you going buddy?
Mark: Good brother, you?
Tilly: Excellent. Now Mark, introduce yourself to these fabulous folk that watch our show. Tell them who you are and what you do here at Retreat.
Mark: Okay, I’m Mark. I run the aluminium section at Retreat Caravans and yeah.
Tilly: Now Mark, running the aluminium section sounds so basic, but mate, it’s pretty full on. I see the effort that you guys go through, it’s probably one of the toughest jobs here at Retreat Caravans. Do you agree?
Mark: I agree. It’s a very dirty job.
Tilly: I was going to touch on that Mark, because you are looking ultra sensational today. What’s going on, mate? Did you get a uniform upgrade?
Mark: Yeah, my brother just gave me one, Tilly. He just gave me a new jumper.
Tilly: See the things I have to do to get you on this segment. Now normally for those that are watching, Mark’s got silicon coming out of his ears amongst other places. So you know what, Mark, if you can keep this up, I reckon I could probably sponsor your uniform throughout the whole year.
Mark: That’d be fantastic.
Tilly: Now Mark, how long have you been within the caravan industry as a whole?
Mark: 34 years.
Tilly: 34 years?
Mark: Yeah.
Tilly: Wow. I just celebrated my 40th birthday recently, so I would’ve been six when you started in the caravan industry.
Mark: I was 16.
Tilly: 16. Well, I haven’t really grown up much, so it’s good to see that you’ve got a lot of experience in the industry and clearly that’s what we value here at Retreat Caravans, people with a lot of industry experience. And Mark, in your 34 years, surely there’s got to be one person that sticks out amongst the crowd. Who’s the favourite person that you’ve ever worked with in your whole journey?
Mark: Would have to be Bradley.
Tilly: Bradley.
Mark: Bradley the plumber, I’ve known him since day one. You guys have got him here as one of your main plumbers.
Tilly: He’s a great plumber. But can I throw something in, mate? If you want a bit of cookie points, don’t you work with your misses every now and then?
Mark: Every now and then, yeah.
Tilly: Yeah. So maybe she’ll be watching, maybe shout her out. You know, “Kristen, you know are my favourite.” I’m trying to give you a help here.
Mark: Yeah. Thanks mate. You help me heaps. Now I’m in trouble.
Tilly: All right, Mark. Now famous person time. If you had to invite anybody for a dinner, be it past or present, who would you invite out for dinner and tell me why please?
Mark: It’d be my mum.
Tilly: Your mum? Okay, and why would you invite Mum for dinner?
Mark: Because she was my best mate.
Tilly: She was your best mate. So is your mum still around or is she in heaven?
Mark: She’s in heaven.
Tilly: Now, what is it mate that makes your mum such a special person?
Mark: I couldn’t do no wrong.
Tilly: You couldn’t do no wrong?
Mark: Couldn’t do no wrong.
Tilly: Well, Mark with me, you can’t do no wrong here, except between Monday to Friday, anywhere between seven o’clock to 3:30. So Mark, tell us a little bit about your mum, right? So Carol, I believe?
Mark: Yeah.
Tilly: Yeah, so she obviously had a tough life because she had to deal with you. No doubt if you, I’ve seen you as an adult, I would’ve seen you as a baby.
Mark: Mate, there’s two of me.
Tilly: What do you mean there’s two of you?
Mark: I’ve got a twin brother.
Tilly: Twin brother.
Mark: Twin brother, mate.
Tilly: Jason Stratham.
Mark: Yeah, that’s him.
Tilly: You obviously got the ugly stick.
Mark: I did.
Tilly: Now Mark, obviously you’ve been at Retreat Caravans here for a very long time and you’ve seen the transition for us using a Meranti wall frame caravan. Now we’ve started with the RXP Caravan.
Mark: Yep.
Tilly: For the customers out there, do you feel that’s a very valuable product to have a fully insulated caravan before you put your aluminium on?
Mark: A hundred percent.
Tilly: Absolutely. Now why would you say that, Mark? In all honesty.
Mark: It’s lightweight. The walls are thicker.
Tilly: Yep.
Mark: A hundred percent waterproof.
Tilly: Yep.
Mark: Insulated a hundred percent, no gaps.
Tilly: So back in the day, the insulation used to be-
Mark: Foam.
Tilly: Yeah. Polystyrene type foam, right?
Mark: Yeah.
Tilly: So the industry’s obviously grown as a whole, and Retreat Caravans being one of the leaders in the industry got onto these walls a lot sooner than some of its competition at the moment. And we are known for innovation, so I guess watch this space, there might be some more innovation coming out soon.
Mark: I think we’re more advanced than most of them out there.
Tilly: Of course there is a lot of caravan manufacturers that like to be innovative. However, our motto is “Be first.” That way we can get a good opportunity to obtain new customers and bring new, exciting products to the customers through the caravan industry.
Mark: That’s why Retreat stands out. It’s why we’re different.
Tilly: Well, you know what they say, you can’t beat a Retreat. Now Mark, thank you very much for joining me on Two Minutes With Tilly.
Mark: Oh, you’re welcome.
Tilly: I’ve got a favour to ask. I’m going to bribe you, I’m going to give you a present right here we go. See these beanies?
Mark: Is it a bottle of Jack?
Tilly: No, it’s not a bottle of Jack, but trust me with a head like yours, I reckon you could probably use one of these.
Mark: Thanks mate.
Tilly: I’ll give you one of these if you take a selfie with me. All right guys, that’s a wrap. We’ve just finished filming season four of Two Minutes with Tilly, and we’re already planning season five. We want to do things a little different though, so get in contact with us on one of our social media platforms, send us a video about where you are planning to head to and we might catch you on a live Zoom with season five of Two Minutes with Tilly.
