Sell Your Cosalt Static Caravan — Free Valuation in 24 Hours

Cosalt produced some of the most popular static caravans and holiday lodges in the UK for more than five decades. Whether you own a classic Riviera, a Torino, or a later model — The Caravan Swap Shop can provide a free, no-obligation valuation and buy it directly from you, regardless of age or condition.

About Cosalt Static Caravans

Cosalt was one of the UK’s leading static caravan manufacturers. The company grew out of Grimsby — its name comes from The Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company — and Cosalt Caravans Limited has been on the Companies House register since 1941. Its holiday-home plant latterly stood on Stoneferry Road in Hull, which closed in 2008. Well-known models include the Riviera, Torino, Sandhurst, Baysdale, Capri and Carlton. Because Cosalt was subsequently wound down, pre-sale on older models is especially important — the older they get, the harder they are to maintain to park standards.

Why Cosalt Owners Choose The Caravan Swap Shop

We understand the Cosalt market. Cosalt caravans have a dedicated resale market, particularly for export. Our team actively sources Cosalt models and applies genuine market pricing.

No commission, no agency fees. You receive 100% of what we offer.

We buy older Cosalt models. Many parks age off Cosalt caravans citing the discontinued manufacturer status. We regularly buy older models and pay real cash for them.

Free collection anywhere in the UK. We deal directly with your park to arrange access and collection.

The Selling Process

1. Free valuation request — complete our free valuation form with your model, year, size, location, and condition
2. Receive your offer within 24 hours — no obligation, no pressure
3. Accept, and we take care of the rest — park access, transport, and paperwork; payment on collection day

Get My Free Cosalt Valuation →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my Cosalt still worth anything now the brand has closed?
Yes. Cosalt models — particularly well-maintained examples in larger sizes — remain in demand for holiday use and export.

My park says no one will buy my Cosalt caravan — is that true?
Parks sometimes suggest this to encourage you to accept a low part-exchange. Submit a valuation and see what we offer before accepting the park’s assessment.

What if my Cosalt has damp problems?
We buy caravans with damp. It affects the offer price but doesn’t prevent a sale.

How long does the sale take from valuation to collection?
Payment is by BACS the same day the deal is agreed; collection typically follows within a week or two of offer acceptance, depending on park access arrangements.

Don’t accept the park’s word on what your Cosalt is worth. Get a free, independent valuation today →

Cosalt Static Caravan Models: A Complete Guide

Owners looking up Cosalt model information are almost always trying to settle one question: does this caravan still have a value? The short answer is that the model badge matters far less than owners expect, and four other factors matter far more. This section sets out which Cosalt models were built, and then explains what actually drives the figure we quote.

The Cosalt static range, roughly by era

Cosalt put its badge on a long list of holiday homes across two decades of static production. Working from published model records, the names that appear most consistently are the Torino, the Riviera (including the Riviera Siesta), the Baysdale, the Capri, the Carlton, the Coaster, the Resort, the Sandhurst, the Torbay and Torbay Classic, the Madeira, the Albany, the Rimini, the Geneva, the Retreat, the Eclipse, the Country, the Siesta, the Concorde, the Balmoral, the Elite, the Fairway, the Riverdale and the Park Leisure.

The published records we work from run from the late 1980s through to 2008 — a Concorde from 1988 at one end, Balmoral, Elite and Park Leisure units badged 2008 at the other. Most of what we are actually offered sits in the 1996–2006 band, which is where Torino, Riviera, Baysdale, Capri and Carlton dominate.

If your model is not in that list, it does not mean the caravan is unusual or unsellable. Badge names were reused, dropped and revived, and park sales offices frequently recorded units under a range name rather than the model. Send us the model plate details and we will work from those.

What actually sets the value

In order of how much they move the figure: size and layout first (a 35 x 12 three-bedroom is a different proposition from a 28 x 10 two-berth), then condition — particularly the floor and the roof, then where the caravan is sited and how easily it can be taken off, and only then the model name. Two Torinos of the same year can be several thousand pounds apart on condition and access alone.

If you want the reasoning behind that in full, our guide to what your static caravan is worth and our valuation method both go through it step by step.

Older Cosalt models are not automatically worthless

The single most common thing we hear from Cosalt owners is that the park has told them the caravan has no value because the make no longer exists. That is a statement about the park’s own resale appetite, not about the caravan. We buy Cosalt units that parks have written off, and there is a working second-hand market for them — covered in detail below.

Who Made Cosalt Caravans, and What Happened to the Company

Cosalt was a Grimsby company before it was a caravan company

The name is a portmanteau of The Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company, formed in 1873 as a co-operative of fishing-vessel owners supplying salt, coal, tanning and clothing to the Grimsby fleet. The business floated on the stock market in 1971 and later diversified well beyond the docks — it was, at various points, a marine safety, workwear and leisure group, and was chaired in its later years by David Ross, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse.

The caravan side grew out of that Grimsby base. Cosalt created the Piper brand, and after the collapse of Sam Alper’s Caravans International it acquired the ACE, Abbey, Bessacarr and Sprite names, later adding Cotswold. During the 1990s it sold most of those touring brands on to Swift and concentrated on static holiday homes — which is the Cosalt most owners reading this page will have bought.

On the register, Cosalt Caravans Limited is company number 00370570, incorporated on 11 November 1941, with a registered office in Grimsby. It is still listed as an active company but has been recorded as dormant for years: its last accounts were made up to 31 December 2011 and have been overdue since September 2013.

Correcting our own record

An earlier version of this page described Cosalt as producing holiday homes “from their Hull factory for over 50 years.” That was not accurate and we have corrected it. Cosalt is a Grimsby company by origin and registration, with caravan works long associated with Convamore Road in Grimsby; Hull came later, as the site of the Cosalt Holiday Homes plant on Stoneferry Road. Conflating the two wrote Grimsby out of the story entirely. We would rather state the record correctly than leave a tidier sentence standing.

How static production actually ended

The sequence matters, because it explains why owners get such inconsistent answers about the brand:

• October 2008 — the leisure division having been acquired by Leeds turnaround firm Endless, the Stoneferry Road plant in Hull was announced for closure with 289 planned job losses. Endless cited losses of roughly £750,000 a month against a collapse in holiday-home demand. A smaller nearby site building higher-end units, employing around 40, was to stay open.
• 2009 — after the business went into administration and further jobs were lost, a management buy-out took on what remained and renamed it Cosalt Custom Homes, preserving a small number of jobs.
• February 2013 — Cosalt plc itself went into administration, with secured bank debt of £11.4m and a pension deficit of nearly £52m. Its remaining divisions were sold or wound up.

So there is no single tidy “Cosalt closed in year X.” The statics stopped, the plant shut, the name survived briefly under new ownership, and the listed parent failed years later. That is exactly why one park will tell you the make died in 2008 and another will tell you 2013.

Does a Dormant Manufacturer Reduce What Your Cosalt Is Worth?

Sometimes, a little. Far less than owners are told, and almost never to nil.

Where it genuinely does matter

Manufacturer-specific parts are the real issue. Window units, door furniture, moulded panels and some fittings were made to Cosalt’s own patterns and are no longer produced. They can usually be sourced second-hand or matched by a specialist, but it takes longer and costs more than the equivalent job on a current make. Where a caravan needs several such parts at once, that shows up in the offer.

The second genuine factor is finance and insurance. Some lenders and a few insurers apply blanket age or manufacturer rules. That is a paperwork constraint on the next buyer, not a judgement on your caravan, but it narrows the pool slightly.

Where it matters far less than owners are told

It does not affect habitability, it does not affect what the unit is worth for holiday use, and it does not affect the export market — where Cosalt units continue to move steadily. A dormant company on the register does not stop a caravan being lived in, let out or sold on.

Where a park uses “the manufacturer’s gone” as the reason your caravan is worth nothing, treat that as an opening position in a negotiation. It is the same argument applied to every discontinued make, and we have written about the pattern in our guide to the holiday park age-off policy and the wider static caravan age-off rules.

Why two identical-looking Cosalts fetch different figures

Because the survey findings differ. Damp readings in the corners, the state of the chassis where it meets the pitch, whether the roof has been re-sealed, whether the unit has been occupied year-round, and — very often — whether the transporter can actually get to it. Two 2003 Carltons on neighbouring pitches can be a four-figure gap apart on those points alone.

Used Cosalt Caravans: What the Second-Hand Market Actually Looks Like

This is the question we are asked most and the one owners find hardest to get a straight answer to, because the people they usually ask — the park — have a commercial interest in the answer being “nothing.”

There is an active used market, and it is not small

Cosalt statics turn up continuously across the trade: on holiday parks reselling stock, through private sales, on general classified sites, and through dealers moving units between parks. The volume is there precisely because Cosalt built a lot of them and they were sold onto parks the length of the country. A make that stopped production nearly two decades ago and still appears routinely in listings is not a make without a market.

What the used figures actually depend on

Anyone quoting you “a used Cosalt is worth £X” without asking about size, layout, year, siting and condition is guessing. The honest version is a range that narrows sharply once those five things are known. The variables in order:

• Footprint and bedrooms — the single biggest lever. Three-bedroom units in 12-foot widths hold value far better than 10-foot two-berths.
• Floor and roof — soft floors and failed roof seals are the two findings that most often turn a good offer into a modest one.
• Double glazing and central heating — a fitted Cosalt from the mid-2000s and an unfitted one from the same year are not the same product.
• Where it stands — a caravan on a pitch with clear transporter access is worth more than the same caravan boxed in behind three others.
• Whether it can be sold off-park at all — some site agreements make this harder, and that is worth checking early.

Watch out for headline valuations

Very high online estimates for used Cosalts usually describe a fully sited, fully serviced caravan being sold on a park with a pitch attached — a completely different product from an off-park sale. Very low ones usually describe a scrap or salvage price. Neither is the number a private owner selling to the trade should be working from. Our page on static caravan values sets out the difference.

Cosalt Caravans For Sale — and Why We Are Buyers, Not Sellers

A good share of the people who reach this page are searching to buy a Cosalt, and it is only fair to say plainly: The Caravan Swap Shop buys static caravans from owners. We are not a retail sales park. If you are looking for a Cosalt to buy, a holiday park sales office or a dealer stocking used units will serve you better than we will.

Where it is worth talking to us is if you are on the other side of that transaction — an owner deciding whether to accept a park’s part-exchange figure, or trying to work out whether selling to the trade beats waiting for a private buyer. Our comparison of selling to a trader versus selling through the park lays out both routes, including the cases where the park is genuinely the better option.

Selling a Cosalt in Any Condition

Damp, water ingress and soft floors

Very common on units of this age, and not a reason we decline. Tell us where it is and roughly how bad; we would far rather quote on an accurate description than revise an offer at the gate. Damp affects the figure — it does not end the conversation.

Storm, flood and impact damage

Also fine. Coastal parks in particular produce a steady flow of storm-damaged units, and we buy them. If there is an insurance claim running, say so up front, as it changes the order in which things need to happen.

Caravans with outstanding finance

Entirely workable and more common than owners assume. There is a defined process for settling the agreement as part of the sale, set out on our page for selling a static caravan with finance. Do not assume an outstanding balance blocks a sale — in most cases it simply gets handled in the paperwork.

Caravans the park will not let you sell privately

Some licence agreements restrict private sales on-site. That does not stop you selling to us, because the caravan leaves the park. Our guides to selling without paying park commission and the documents you need cover the practical side.

Caravans you have simply had enough of

Rising pitch fees, a park you no longer visit, an inheritance you did not want. There is no requirement to justify selling. If the unit is old and you assume it is only fit for scrap, read how to get rid of an old static caravan before you pay anyone to remove it — owners are quite often paying for disposal on units that still have a value.

Where We Collect Cosalt Caravans

Cosalt units are spread across every major static-caravan region in Britain, and because so many were sold new onto Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglian parks, that is where we see the greatest concentration. We collect UK-wide. The regional pages below cover access, park practice and local market conditions:

• Yorkshire & the East Coast — Yorkshire, Filey, Hull, Humberside
• Lincolnshire & the Wash — Lincolnshire, Skegness
• East Anglia — East Anglia, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex
• The South & South East — South East, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, the South Coast
• The South West — South West, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset
• The North & Scotland — Lancashire, Cumbria, the Lake District, Northumberland, Scotland
• Wales — North Wales, the North Wales coast

The full list is on our regions page.

How Cosalt Compares to Other Makes We Buy

Cosalt sits in the same category as several other discontinued or heavily changed British makes: plenty of units still on parks, no factory behind them, and owners repeatedly told the unit is worthless as a result. The comparison that matters most is with BK Bluebird, whose company was formally dissolved in 2023 — a step further than Cosalt, whose caravan company remains on the register as dormant. In practice both makes trade on condition, size and access rather than on the health of the manufacturer.

Against makes still in production — Willerby, Swift, ABI, Atlas, Pemberton, Carnaby, Delta, Regal, Victory and Omar — a like-for-like Cosalt of the same size and condition will generally sit lower, mostly on the parts-availability point above. The gap is usually smaller than owners are led to expect.

Cosalt Owners: More Questions Answered

Is my Cosalt too old for you to buy?

No. We buy any age. The oldest Cosalt statics on the published record date from the late 1980s and we still get asked about them. Age changes the figure, not our willingness to quote.

My park says a Cosalt can’t be re-sited anywhere. Is that right?

It is right that some parks operate an age limit that would exclude an older Cosalt from their site. It is not right that no park anywhere will take it, and it is not right that the caravan therefore has no value — units also go to private land, to export, and to parks with different rules. See the age-off policy guide for how these rules actually work.

Do you need to see the caravan before making an offer?

Not to make an offer. We work from your description, photographs and the model details, and our process is set out on how it works. An accurate description at the start is what keeps the figure stable.

What if the park has already offered me a part-exchange?

Get a second figure before you accept. A part-exchange number is bundled into the price of the caravan you are buying, which makes it very hard to see what your Cosalt was actually valued at. Our part-exchange guide explains how to separate the two numbers.

Can you buy a Cosalt that is jointly owned or part of an estate?

Yes, with the right paperwork in place. Estate and probate sales are routine for us; what we need is set out under documents you need to sell a static caravan.

How long does the whole thing take?

Most Cosalt sales are straightforward, and the timeline is covered on how long it takes to sell a static caravan. The variable is almost always park access rather than anything to do with the caravan itself.

Where can I read what other sellers say?

Our reviews and testimonials pages carry feedback from owners who have been through the process, including on discontinued makes.

Sources for the company record on this page: Companies House (Cosalt Caravans Limited, company number 00370570); the European Restructuring Monitor factsheet 67315 on the 2008 Cosalt Holiday Homes closure at Stoneferry Road, Hull, drawn from BBC News reporting of 27 October 2008; and published accounts of Cosalt plc’s history and its February 2013 administration. Model names are taken from published static caravan specification records covering Cosalt units from 1988 to 2008.