Builders 'too slow'
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A MAJOR coachbuilding firm is having to turn away orders worth several hundred thousand pounds — because it cannot produce the goods quickly enough. One of the orders was worth £450,000 from the Eastern Scottish bus company in Edinburgh.
The firm is Walter Alexander of Falkirk, whose present output is around 600 buses a year. The 29-bus order that Eastern Scottish took away from Alexander has gone to Piaxton in Scarborough.
Managing director Raymond Braithwaite told CM: "This is the first time a member of the Scottish Bus Group has given a contract to Plaxton's. Obviously it is worrying from our point of view. Previously, we supplied the majority of vehicles for the Scottish Bus Group but we just cannot produce them quickly enough.
"The Eastern Scottish contract would have been worth £450,000 to us but our delivery date was too late for them and we lost out. We have been turning down orders for some time now simply because we cannot get the vehicles down our assembly lines quickly enough." There were two reasons for this: low productivity and a shortage of skilled labour. But he hoped a new productivity scheme would go some way towards easing the problems.
Recently 700 shop floor workers accepted a pay and productivity deal which ended two weeks of disruptive industrial action which badly hit production. "If we were in a position to accept all the contracts offered to us then expansion would undoubtedly follow.
"We would need about 100 new employees and it could mean a 10 per cent growth figure over a period of several years. Our product is good enough and there is plenty of work on offer to allow for expansion."