The company's bright blue Toyota Hiace adorned with 1.5-metre wide logos on either side was nicked from Caves Beach on Saturday morning.

"It got stolen at about eight o'clock in the morning, our sales guy was down there with his partner having a surf," Steel City managing director Oliver Semken said.

"All of their belongings were on the beach.

"Down there at the time of the morning, it was obviously pre-mediated that they were going to go down there and [steal it]."

Mr Semken said after initial concern for his colleague and their partner his thoughts turned to how someone would get away with stealing the easily-spotted vehicle.

"Initially we didn't really put anything up on social media, we thought it's got to be around Caves Beach somewhere. They can't be that dumb to be driving around in a big branded blue van knowing the word would be out there," he said.

Steel City, which only launched last month, is backed by a host of Hunter sporting heavyweights including World Surf League star Ryan Callinan and Knights legends Matthew and Andrew Johns.

Their combined social media following is in the hundreds of thousands, and Matthew Johns was quick to share a post about the theft to his 80,000 followers on Instagram.

Mr Semken said once the word got out the response was "overwhelming".

"It was really good to see the community was willing to help us raising awareness.

"That was a really overwhelming and positive response from everyone.

"It's good to know you live in a community like that," he said.

Social media proved helpful in the search, but the culprit's spending spree with company credit cards provided the first real clues.

Security camera footage from where the cards were used, along with a "Find My iPhone" app used to track a mobile phone that was in the vehicle, ultimately helped track down the van late on Sunday afternoon.

It was found in bushland near Murrays Beach and towed by Police for fingerprint testing. Officers from Lake Macquarie Police are continuing investigations.

Mr Semken said there was no beer in the van at the time of the theft.

He expected the vehicle to be returned on Monday.

"We should be back on the road selling beer on Tuesday," he said.

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