Farewell to Sandbach
Page 16
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• by Corm Barnett Paccar has announced that it is to transfer Foden production to its assembly plant at Leyland.
The move, on 1 March next year, will end more than a century of truck production at Sandbach, although the company's sales, marketing and engineering functions will remain there.
The decision is said by Paccar to be in response to a need to improve efficiency levels to cope with rising Foden sales, now running at around 1,500 units per year. The exten
sively modernised Leyland facility has been acclaimed as one the most efficient assembly operations in Europe.
Foden assembly will take Leyland's workforce to more than 1,000 and its annual output to more than 10,000 for the first time in many years, more than filling the gap left by the loss of the lsuzu assembly contract to ERF.
Of the current 415-strong workforce at Sandbach, 150 will stay behind. A Paccar spokesman says "the vast majority' of the other 265 will be offered the opportunity to move 60 miles up the M6, where more than 200 vacancies will arise.
Foden MD Aad Goudriaan says: "This production move to one of the most efficient plants in Europe will further strengthen Foden's competitiveness as a dedicated brand within the Paccar family."