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After more than a decade away from heavy truck cab
Page 24
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building in the UK, Mayflower Vehicle Systems has returned to the fold in a new joint
partnership with DaimlerChrysler—and one that could spell big business. Brian Weatherley reports.
Mayflowers and bonnets
• The name Mayflower Vehicle Systems probably doesn't mean much to the average British truck operator. But the business it bought in 1991— Motor Panels—will do.
Throughout the sixties, seventies and much of the eighties the Coventry-based company was synonymous with heavy truck cab engineering. in its heyday, it built Roadtrain and Roadrunner cabs for Leyland, sleeper cabs for the original Ford Cargo, and cabs for Seddon Atkinson and Foden. At the 1980 Motor Show, it even unveiled its awn innovative allaluminium 'Hem' Tech' cab, which was a third of the weight of an equivalent steel cab.
Short-term future
Then, early in 1991, its parent company CHI hit the skids. The effect on Motor Panels was traumatic. recalls Keith -larding, Mayflower's general manager sales and marketing and a Motor Panels veteran. "We had made only one loss in 20 years. Then one day we found 15 receivers on the doorstep!" Such was the strength of Motor Panels that CHI used it as a guarantor to its debts. "It remained a very profitable company even though it was in receivership," adds Harding. "That resulted in a very interesting nine months! We know they [the receivers] didn't really understand it. The worst thing they could have done was to stop us trading," he says. "But we ran as a business throughout that time."
From a production perspective, Motor Panels' short-term future was assured, not least through building cabs for existing customers. However, when it came to future engineering projects, things looked far less certain. And as the 'consolidation' of European truck manufacturers continued inexorably, the days of Motor Panels building truck cabs for local UK manufacturers were clearly numbered.
Enter Mayflower, a company better known for producing seatbelt webbing—and one that was very keen to expand its automotive operations. "It was a company we'd never personally heard of," admits Harding. "But they bought us for 114m." The acquisition in late 1991 was effectively a 'reverse takeover': at the time. Mayflower was actually smaller than Motor Panels, but the City liked it and backed rt. But did Mayflower know what they'd bought?
Two-prong strategy
"Very much so," reckons Harding. "They had a two-prong strategy to grow the Mayflower brand through acquisition and organic growth, and Motor Panels offered an ideal opportunity to do this with its [Motor Panels' Coventry] site."
Fast forward a decade, and while Mayflower retained some truck business (until recently it was still building the cabs for Leyland Des 55 Series) its focus has since become primarily car-based. "We can offer a complete 'turnkey' service providing all the engineering and prototyping right up to manufacturing," reports Harding.
Sc has Mayflower turned its back on European heavy truck cabs for good? Not yet. At next week's CV Show, visitors to the DaimlerChrysler stand will be able to see a brand new military chassis called the S2000, featuring a cab developed in partnership with Mayflower. "DaimlerChrysler came to us two-and-a-half years ago and asked us if we could look at a low volume and specialist project.
"That project was a military family of vehicles called S2000," reports -larding.
"We were given the aesthetic designs and created an engineering concept that included armoured panelling. What makes it unique is that every vehicle will have an armoured floor as standard.'' The 'family' consists of three basic models:
• A 4x4 with a six-tonne payload