The trailer market opened 2026 with sustained year-on-year growth across both small and boat trailer segments. The small trailer segment continued its structural expansion, a two-horse race emerged at the very top of the rankings, and the boat trailer segment delivered a clear story of category leadership consolidation alongside notable volatility among challengers.
Read on for our full category breakdown and the standout brand movements driving the market.
A Note on Methodology
This report draws on Register of Approved Vehicles (RAV) entries, which capture regulatory approvals rather than end-customer sales. We focus on Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025, with quarter-on-quarter references where they illuminate sustained trends or meaningful reversals. Top-ranked manufacturers are listed individually across both the small trailer and boat trailer segments, while the remainder of the highly fragmented market is grouped into ‘Other Makes.’ Market share figures reference each manufacturer’s proportion of total approvals within the relevant segment and quarter.
All data is refreshed with each quarterly report, so figures within any given edition reflect the most current available snapshot. As such, some metrics may shift quarter-over-quarter as these refinements are applied.
Retain Media provides this data “as is” for informational purposes only and accepts no liability for decisions made based on this reporting. Users are encouraged to use this data as one of multiple data points in their market analysis.
Small Trailers
Q1 2026 recorded 33,553 small trailer entries on the Register of Approved Vehicles, a 12.6% increase on the 29,795 entries recorded in Q1 2025 and a clear signal that the segment’s structural expansion continues into the new year. The composition of the market also shifted on a year-on-year basis, with Other Makes climbing to 53.8% share in Q1 2026 from 48.7% in Q1 2025, suggesting that the fragmented tail has grown faster than the named manufacturers as a group over the past 12 months.
Top Five Manufacturers
The top of the small trailer market in Q1 2026 was defined by a rebalancing at the front of the rankings and continued volume strength across the established leaders.
Stonegate Industries and Victorian Trailers arrived at virtual parity for the first time in recent periods, with Stonegate recording 2,660 approvals and Victorian Trailers close behind at 2,655. Stonegate’s Q1 2026 result sits 16.3% ahead of its Q1 2025 tally of 2,288, confirming that its longer-term growth trajectory remains intact. That year-on-year gain should be read alongside a more recent pattern, however. Stonegate peaked at 3,968 entries in Q3 2025 and declined across three consecutive quarters since, with share pulling back from 12.0% to 7.9% over that period. The year-on-year growth is real, but the sustained post-peak retreat is a trend worth watching as Q2 2026 approaches.
Victorian Trailers, by contrast, grew 11.6% year-on-year from 2,378 entries in Q1 2025 to 2,655 in Q1 2026, with share holding at broadly 8.0% across both periods, a result that slightly understates its momentum given the broader market’s expansion over the same period. It is Victorian Trailers carrying the stronger sequential momentum in that pairing, and Q2 2026 will clarify whether Stonegate’s correction has further to go.
Telwater Trailers posted 1,331 entries in Q1 2026, a 10.0% year-on-year increase from 1,210 entries in Q1 2025, holding its share at 4.0% against 4.1% a year earlier. That consistency, maintained across five consecutive quarters of data, positions Telwater as a brand holding its structural position in the small trailer segment despite the competitive pressures around it.
Century Trailers recorded 1,192 entries in Q1 2026, a 20.3% year-on-year increase from 991 entries in Q1 2025, with share expanding from 3.3% to 3.6% over the same period. The brand ran strongly through Q2 and Q3 2025 before moderating into Q1 2026, but the year-on-year result confirms that Century remains on a meaningful upward path.
The Bigman Trailers closed out the top five with 869 entries in Q1 2026, a 3.6% year-on-year increase from 839 entries in Q1 2025 and a share of 2.6%. The brand has posted volumes above 800 entries in three of the past four quarters, reinforcing its status as a stable and growing mid-to-upper tier player.
The Rest of the Top 10
Below the top five, Q1 2026 delivered a mix of sharp gains and continued pressure on brands that have struggled to hold their rankings.
Superior Trailer Parts was the standout performer in positions six through ten, recording 743 entries in Q1 2026 against 415 in Q1 2025, a 79.0% year-on-year increase that lifted its share from 1.4% to 2.2%. The brand has moved consistently upward across each of the past four quarters and appears to be entering a new phase of growth.
Dunbier recorded 730 entries in Q1 2026, a 22.7% year-on-year decline from 944 entries in Q1 2025, with share contracting from 3.2% to 2.2% over the same period. Dunbier’s trajectory across the past 12 months has been one of gradual contraction, and the Q1 2026 result does little to arrest that pattern. It is worth noting that Dunbier also appears in the boat trailer segment, where a parallel decline is playing out, a dynamic we examine further below.
Coastmac Trailers was a bright spot in the lower half of the top 10, recording 703 entries in Q1 2026 against 573 in Q1 2025, a 22.7% year-on-year gain that lifted its share from 1.9% to 2.1%. That result is particularly notable given that volumes dipped across the middle quarters of 2025, suggesting the brand has regained momentum heading into Q2.
King Kong Trailers recorded 678 entries in Q1 2026, a 6.2% year-on-year decline from 723 entries in Q1 2025, with share easing from 2.4% to 2.0%. The brand dipped sharply in Q2 2025 before recovering across subsequent quarters, and the Q1 2026 result, while not yet back to its prior year level, is a result that points to gradual recovery.
MW Manufacturing continued its rapid ascent, recording 585 entries in Q1 2026 against 135 in Q1 2025, a 333.3% year-on-year increase that lifted its share from 0.5% to 1.7%. That growth has been consistent across each quarter of the past 12 months and underscores how dramatically the brand has scaled in a short period.
Market Fragmentation and the Role of 'Other Makes'
The small trailer market’s fragmentation dynamic shifted notably on a year-on-year basis, with Other Makes expanding from 14,515 entries in Q1 2025 to 18,036 in Q1 2026, a 24.3% increase that lifted their share from 48.7% to 53.8%. That movement outpaced the named manufacturers as a group, making the fragmented tail the largest single contributor to absolute volume growth over the past 12 months, a clear signal that new entrants continue to find footing in the segment.
It is worth noting that Other Makes also recovered sequential ground from Q4 2025’s more concentrated result, suggesting that Q4 2025’s concentration among defined brands was partly seasonal or driven by regulatory approval timing, rather than a permanent structural shift.
Among the broader top 20, Cruiser Trailer and Chassis posted a standout year-on-year result of 371.1% growth from 97 to 457 entries, and new entrant NBT Trailers registered 219 approvals after recording none in Q1 2025. At the other end of the spectrum, John Papas Trailers recorded a significant year-on-year decline, falling from 1.9% share in Q1 2025 to just 0.5% in Q1 2026. That contraction places it alongside Dunbier as a brand that has surrendered meaningful ground over the past 12 months, and its drop is particularly notable given that it held a share position in Q1 2025 comparable to brands that now sit comfortably inside the top 10.
That those gains and losses sit side by side in the same tier speaks to how unevenly momentum is distributed across the segment’s mid and lower tiers. BTH Products and Modern Trailers have bucked that pattern entirely, holding share in the 1.1% to 1.5% range across five consecutive quarters without the volatility seen elsewhere.
Consolidation at the Top, Renewed Fragmentation Below
Q1 2026 presented a small trailer market that is simultaneously maturing at the top and restless beneath it. Telwater Trailers and Century Trailers held their structural positions with only modest share movement, while Superior Trailer Parts and Coastmac Trailers delivered the most meaningful year-on-year gains among the established mid-tier. At the same time, Other Makes and the broader fragmented tail grew faster than the named manufacturer group, extending their share lead over the past 12 months.
Our analysis points to a segment where the top positions are becoming more competitive and defined, while the lower tiers remain a dynamic pool of emerging brands capable of moving quickly up the rankings, and an equally dynamic pool of established names capable of losing ground just as quickly. With Stonegate’s post-peak correction unresolved and John Papas Trailers yet to stabilise, Q2 2026 will be an important read on whether these trends deepen or begin to turn.
Boat Trailers
The boat trailer segment tells a related but distinct story, one defined by sharper concentration at the top and greater uncertainty beneath it.
The segment recorded 2,508 entries in Q1 2026, a 3.8% decline from the 2,608 entries recorded in Q1 2025. That headline figure requires context, as the composition of the segment shifted considerably over the past 12 months. Towrex Trailers recorded zero approvals in Q1 2026 after posting 137 entries in Q1 2025, and Dunbier fell by 214 entries year-on-year, meaning those two brands together account for more than the total segment decline. The remaining brands collectively grew, which reframes the year-on-year softness as concentrated at two specific brands rather than reflecting a broad market retreat.
Despite the overall dip in volume, the segment’s competitive structure remained clearly defined, with the top two brands accounting for more than 82% of all approvals, a figure almost unchanged from the 82.6% those two brands held in Q1 2025 and a sign that two-brand dominance at the top of this segment has been remarkably stable even as share has shifted between them.
Top Five Manufacturers
Telwater Trailers reasserted its dominance in Q1 2026, recording 1,331 entries and growing its share from 46.4% in Q1 2025 to 53.1%, a year-on-year expansion that confirms the brand’s position as the category’s structurally dominant force, consistent with its performance in the small trailer segment discussed above.
Dunbier posted 730 entries in Q1 2026, extending the year-on-year contraction noted in the small trailer section, with share falling from 36.2% to 29.1%. That cross-segment pattern warrants close attention as Q2 2026 data becomes available.
Easytow Boat Trailers recorded 257 entries in Q1 2026, broadly consistent with its Q1 2025 figure of 262 and holding a 10.2% share. That share figure is marginally higher than Easytow’s 10.0% reading in Q1 2025, though the gain reflects the proportional benefit of Towrex Trailers’ absence from Q1 2026 rather than a significant absolute surge. The result nonetheless confirms Easytow as a reliable third-tier operator in the segment.
Redco continued to build presence, posting 190 entries in Q1 2026 against 55 in Q1 2025, a 245.5% year-on-year increase that lifted its share from 2.1% to 7.6%. That growth makes Redco one of the fastest-growing named brands in the boat trailer category.
Towrex Trailers recorded zero entries in Q1 2026 after posting 380 in Q4 2025 and 205 in Q3 2025. Whether the absence reflects a regulatory timing issue, a strategic pause, or a more sustained withdrawal will become clearer when Q2 2026 data is available.
The Boat Trailer Market at a Crossroads
Q1 2026 reinforced Telwater Trailers’ structural leadership of the boat trailer segment while raising questions about the durability of the competitive tier beneath it. Towrex Trailers’ complete absence from the quarter’s approvals removed one of the more active challengers from the data, and Dunbier’s continued year-on-year decline adds further uncertainty to the mid-tier picture.
Redco’s rapid year-on-year growth suggests there is genuine appetite for emerging brands in the category, and Easytow Boat Trailers demonstrated the kind of consistency that positions it as a stable third-tier presence. Q2 2026 will be the key read on whether Towrex returns and whether Dunbier’s contraction stabilises or deepens.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
Q1 2026 was a quarter of competitive tension at every level of the trailer market. At the top, established leaders either tightened their grip or found themselves caught by brands that had been building quietly for several quarters. In the mid-tier, the movements were sharper and less predictable, with some brands scaling rapidly while others continued a contraction that looked structural rather than cyclical.
In the boat trailer segment, Telwater Trailers reasserted a dominant share position, confirming a top-heavy structure that shows no signs of loosening, while real uncertainty remains in the tier below heading into Q2.
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