Ikarus sets up UK/EEC sales deal
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MORE details of Hungarian giant lkarus's bid for British bus and coach body sales have emerged with news that Kirkby Central has been given the right to sell Ikarusbodied coaches in Britain and the EEC.
Kirkby is already reported to have ordered 20 Ikarus Blue Danube coach bodies on Volvo BlOM chassis for delivery this season.
The initial batch will all be for the British market.
The Yorkshire dealer is reported to be investigating possible sales opportunities in Europe. It also expects to order a larger number of bodies for the 1987/8 season.
As forecast, Ikarus bodies are to be shipped into one of Britain's six freeports to enable the payment of value added tax and import duty to be deferred until the vehicles are sold.
Ikarus UK agent Robertson International is also reported
to be setting up a similar deal for the supply of bus bodies to the UK and EEC.
Kirkby is understood to be in competition with bus chassis manufacturers and other dealers for this business.
For the British bus and coach-building industry, the Ikarus move could have dire consequences. The Hungarian plants have a vast capacity (around 14,000 units per year) and a low-cost production base.
British coachbuilders are already reeling under stiff competition from European coach-makers and report great pressures on their profit margins. The recession has already created a glut of unsold coaches, and over capacity, rather than under capacity, is a problem.
Bus builders are faring even worse. The home market has been decimated by the uncertainty created by deregulation and the forthcoming privatisation of the National Bus Company.
The possibility of British builders going out of business, leaving Ikarus to pick up the pieces when the market revives, is a real one.