Abel Homes entrepreneurs launch Range and Road farm ATV firm

Range and Road is the latest venture from the team behind Watton-based property company Abel Homes.

It is the regional distributor for Can-Am - a Canadian manufacturer whose extensive range includes versatile off-road all-terrain and utility task vehicles (ATVs and UTVs).

Company chairman Tony Abel said Range and Road is a natural sister company to Electric Wheels, another part of the Abel group, which was launched in 2019 to meet demand for environmentally-friendly electric vehicles at outdoor show, event and leisure venues.

It also fits perfectly with the passions of his son Chris, the company's managing director, who has raced off-road vehicles in competitions across Europe.

Chris Abel is managing director of Range and Road in Watton (Image: Range and Road) And while all-terrain vehicle manufacturers are working towards an electric-powered future, Mr Abel said 90pc of the market at the moment still relies on petrol-fuelled engines for the gruelling workload of farms and rural living - so Range and Road is aiming to bridge the gap during that transition.

Mr Abel said: "When we started out with the electric UTVs, it followed very closely with the ethos we have in the other businesses, because Abel Homes is all about sustainability and energy efficiency.

"But we found that some customers were turning away, because they had got such high demand - somebody might be running two gamekeepers on shifts but they just wanted one vehicle that would effectively do a 16-hour day, sometimes pulling a trailer. Well that's a big ask for an electric UTV, so far.

"So we realised that we were actually only capitalising on less than 10pc of the total market.

"Then the opportunity came up to take on the Can-Am franchise for this area, and it seemed a perfect fit as a sister company. 

"There is definitely a place for both electric and fossil-fuelled vehicles at the moment. I imagine with most of our transport in 5-10 years time it will be difficult to source a fossil-fuelled vehicle, but this transition period, the crossover to electric vehicles, is quite interesting."

Range and Road has been launched in Watton, selling Can-Am quad bikes and utility vehicles (Image: Can-Am)

Mr Abel added that agriculture was an important market, especially in East Anglia.

"Farming surrounds us, and farmers surround us," he said. "So of course we are closely allied with farming in this part of the country. You can't not be."

Mr Abel has also recruited another prominent Norfolk businessman to the company's board. His long-time friend Stephan Phillips, a former director of Norwich City Football Club and the EDP's former publishing company, Archant, is a non-executive director of Range and Road.

The Can-Am machines are part-assembled in Mexico, but completed at Range and Road's Watton workshop, from where they will be sold across Norfolk and Suffolk, and parts of Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Although the showroom at Neaton Business Park in Watton was opened at the start of August, the firm will be formally launched at an Open Day on Saturday, September 14.

The team at Range and Road in Watton. Pictured from left are director Stephan Phillips, chairman Tony Abel, marketing manager Carla Bartlett, sales specialist Matthew Radmore and sales manager Sam Cox (Image: Sonya Duncan)

Range and Road has been launched in Watton to sell Can-Am all-terrain utility vehicles into the agriculture sector in East Anglia (Image: Sonya Duncan) Tony Abel and Stephan Phillips are directors of Range and Road in Watton (Image: Sonya Duncan)