Big brother backs Euro move
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by Toby Clark MI When Andover Trailers decided to look for a trading partner on the Continent, they thought big. Goldhofer of Bavaria is many times larger than Andover, It is best known for heavy haulage trailers but has a comprehensive range of other products—company President Ralf Schiller reckons that it has 120 competitors in Europe alone.
CM visited the company recently at its base in Memmingen, near the border with Switzerland and Austria, to find out how it approaches the heavy haulage market, and how such a transnational agree
Typically complex self-steering trailer chassis. trolled lathes, milling machines and laser cutters. ment can work; what can the two companies offer each other?
Goldhofer produces an impressive range of hardware from lurid fairground equipment to complex aircraft tugs, and haulage tackle from lightweight drawbar trailers to super-heavy modular units.
Impressive array
This variety might seem wilful, but Goldhofer has an impressive array of equipment and techniques. The company has embraced CAD (Computer. AidedDesign) wholeheartedly, and makes use of it in surprising ways. For instance, detailed digital road maps of Western Europe allow it to plan obstacle. free routes for heavy equipment.
Goldhofer is proud of its technical clout, emphasising that heavy haulage is not a hit-ormiss affair. For example, US. spec modular units are rated at 36 tonnes per axle, may be combined to move 1,500 tonne loads, and must operate with full steering and suspension movement under any conditions of load and terrain. Design and engineering costs represent 1015% of turnover, and 40 of the 435-strong workforce are designers. Even with this level of staff the design department is a bottleneck in the production process. A standard trailer may take six weeks to deliver, but any modifications could double that figure. CAD is expected to make modular design easier and improve productivity.
The company is committed to apprenticeships for engineers and assembly workers; 40 employees are trainees and their workshop would be the pride of many a UK engineering firm. But the machine tools on the shop floor itself are even more impressive: over the past four years Goldhofer has invested DM25m (.C10m) in computer-con But this strong research and development capability brings its own problems. The cost of such resources has to be borne by the customer, so Goldhofer's products are far from cheap. This is acceptable in low-volume product niches, but it has combined with the strong Deutschmark to make the more conventional "production-line" models a luxury that fewer customers can afford. Goldhofer sold 250 drawbar trailers in 1993, half the 1992 figure. The downturn in the Continental market means that those that are sold tend to include fewer options—sprung ramps rather than hydraulics, for instance.
Specialist equipment
The situation with specialist heavy haulage equipment is better in other ways: only one girder-bridge unit may be sold each year, but such orders are dependent on major long-term contracts, so it is easier to predid trends in the market.
The large US market is picking up after 10 years of recession, but the most exciting growth is happening in the Far East. The "Little Tigers" such as Korea and Thailand are developing rapidly, and here Goldhofer sees a chance to sell a wider range. Customers want to buy cheaper products as well as the low-volume heavy equipment: a source of relatively
inexpensive trailers would let Goldhofer capture a large part of this growing market.
Goldhofer evidently thought long and hard before collaborating with the much smaller Andover Trailers and had already rejected approaches from other British companies. The difference, says Ralf Schiller, is that "there is no technical overlap and no market overlap" between the companies. "But we share a similar approach to customers; a longterm relationship".
Andover will also allow access to the UK, which been a tough nut for Goldhofer to crack. German manufacturers generally over-design for UK axle loads and gross weights, so they have made little headway in our highly competitive market. But licence manufacture is being considered, so perhaps buyers will acquire a taste for Andover-built extendible, power-steered trailers that combine German engineering with a British price tag.