DUBLIN brothers Des and Fergal Rogers are set to make a big splash by taking their famous Viking Splash Tours to the rest of Europe.
The two brothers from Goatstown decided to rebrand their successful Dublin based tour for a European market as City Splash Tours and have redesigned their DUKW trucks for a wider market.
“You’re talking about original World War II vehicles here that were designed in 1942/43 for the D-Day landings and they are starting to show signs of wear and tear,” Des told Northside People.
“They’re not very environmentally friendly with the emissions they produce, and you can’t just drop in a brand new diesel engine so that was sign for us to get the engines changed. And once you start changing one thing it leads to other things.
The siblings looked at a couple of American companies who specialised in constructing amphibious vehicles, but after finding out the machines would struggle to meet European regulatory standards, they set up a design shop in Belfast to redesign and construct a brand new vehicle.
The wheels were soon put in motion to build a vehicle that would pass the European regulations and bring the tour forward into the future.
“We’re quite experienced in business, as we’ve had other businesses before, and we just felt if we’re going to go to all this effort to redesign our vehicle in Dublin, then why not look at other cities?” Rogers added.
“There’s about 70 cities that qualify. They range in size from Belfast, which would be a ‘C’ city, to Paris which would be an ‘A’ city. Dublin would be a ‘B’ city.
“Of those cities there’s about seven that have amphibious vehicle tours and after that it’s a matter of ambition, energy levels and the money behind you.”
Loan Support from AIB has brought the Rogers brothers closer to achieving their dream of expanding their vehicles into new waters, and although many within their industry prefer to keep business local, they’ve taken inspiration from other Irish companies who have made the leap into international markets.
“It’s rather surprising that a small company in Dublin has the ambition to grow into a global player but we’re fortunate enough that we’re in a niche market where we’ve developed the expertise and knowledge that would be equal or better than most other operators,” Des said.
“If you want to grow your business in Ireland the chances are you’re going to go abroad. It doesn’t mean that you have to, there’s lots of successful businesses in Ireland that stay in Ireland and do their own thing, but look at CRH, Kerry Group, Ryanair, they’re all plying their trades in other jurisdictions.
“We are operators, designers and we’re now builders, so it’s a shame on us if we don’t give it a go.”
City Splash Tours is the new name for the franchise outside of Ireland with the Rogers Group looking to establish city sightseeing tours in Europe and America after enjoying great success in Dublin and following a recent trade show in Barcelona, their first orders abroad.