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JOINING FORCES
Page 54
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Over the past 12 months, trailer manufacturers have been jostling for position. One way of getting ahead is to take over a rival — and, by acquiring Vassey Tankers, Crossland Tankers has become a major player.
Only last month. Southfields went into administration with a full order book, having suffered cash-flow problems after failing to sell its old factory site providing further evidence on just how tight trailer manufacturers' margins are. Southfields has little in conunon with Crossland Tankers of Swatragh.Northeni Ireland other than designing and building bodies and trailers but it provides a vital lesson in risk-taking when changing your company's current position.
Group managing director Brian McKeefry was looking to expand Crossland Tankers. part of the BP McKeefry Transport Group, and acknowledges there was an element of risk in his actions it comes with the territory "It 's not a huge industry, but there was nothing else like Massey Tankers available," he explains. Six months have passed since the acquisition loran undisclosed amount.The company A Designs are created on computer has been finalising its designs. and talk turns to profit. It has a £4.5m annual turnover. which McKeefry aims to increase by a third tof6m over the next 18 months.
"We are not running a charityhe comments, referring to the skinny margins on offer. "but we are now in a position to really push forward into the tanker marketplace." There is intense rivalry from Clayton Commercials and Whale Tankers,but McKeefry is not frightened by the competition."It's a good opportunity for us with our product range. We are good at what we do," he affirms. Crossland Tankers is a relative newcomer to building trailers, but McKeefry has a long history with tankers. He operated them before turning his hand to refurbishing and repairing them in 1988, turning to trailer manufacturing four years ago with a heavy reliance on design, based on his own experiences.
Merging the two companies' products into one range has provided a challenge for the management team. It has settled for keeping the rigids based on Massey designs, while the trailers will be Crossland specifications for milk,foodstuftand fire service products, together with ADR and vacuum tankers, the latter new to the Accrington development.
Investment
McKeefry has poured more than £400,000 into the new site, training its staff, developing designs as the two firms' product ranges merged, and adding vital time-saving equipment. A 6.0metre roller, turning sheet metal into 6m cylinders, has been installed, along with a new seam welder, among other equipment. So now, trailer tankers are built in only two sections.
Moreover, the workforce is divided into 12 teams, each building a complete unit."This saves us valuable time building the products. And setting up teams of two or three people and working with a product from start to finish is more interesting for the workforce,McKeefry explains.The hard work starts now for the group MD as the company begins hopefully to turn the expansion into profit. •