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GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS

25th October 2001
Page 15
Page 15, 25th October 2001 — GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Fontaine VBG's owner Marmon is not a conventional conglomerate; instead it is an "association" of more than 100 companies. As the name suggests, parts of the firm originate from Marmon, the now defunct manufacturer of cars and trucks, but the group also includes hotel group Hyatt.

While control from the top (company president Bob Pritzker, a 74-year-old multi-billionaire based in Chicago) is direct and immediate, sister companies have no special deals with each other.

Fontaine international in the US is a huge producer of fifth wheels—it puts out 120,000 each year, 10 times the production of Fontaine VII—but It doesn't dominate the UK operation. As Roger Darling puts it: "We are Fontaine International Europe. Basically there's a line down the Atlantic and we look after Europe."

Fontaine VBG holds about 40% of the UK fifthwheel market (8-9,000 a year) with up to TO% of the smaller market for drawbar couplings. These are sourced from V80 in Sweden which, despite its name, is an independent firm. But the Cheshire firm has

more world-wide

responsibilities too in response to the inevitable globalisation of truck manufacture. As firms like Scania and Mercedes-Benz open assembly plants all over the world they expect component suppliers to keep up with them. For example, VBG is in discussion with South American manufacturers to licence-build components for truck plants in Brazil and Argentina.

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