eyland/Sherpa tie up export deal with OAF
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'IL SPARK of success for id Rover-Leyland amid the tes of the failed GM takeelwas Monday's revelation at it has signed an reement with Daf to sell I service Roadrunner trucks :I Sherpa vans ill Europe. Details have yet to be alised and Freight Rover's maging director George npson says there are still NO to three months of deled negotiations before a ial binding contract is and several months fore production begins-. The basic agreement will :wide for the sales and ser:Mg, through Dais Contintal network, of derivatives the Freight Rover Sherpa ) Series and the Leyland
■ adrunner up to nine-tormcs /W.
Both vehicles will be sold th Dia' badges.
Daf has over 300 mainland ropean dealers and all are pected to sell the Roadrunr and Sherpa under the reement.
For Leyland Trucks, and Freight Rover more so, the deal increases export sales opportunities.
Daf will also benefit from the increased volume of lighter Leyland vehicles passing through its heavy truck dealer network.
Leyland estimates the deal will give it an extra 1,000 Roadrunner export sales. Currently it is only sold in 'France through Leyland Trucks dealers.
Freight Rover expects much higher volumes. "We would be disappointed if, in a
mature year, sales did not run into several thousand,says Simpson:
it already has its own dealer network in France, Belgium, Finland, Spain and Luxembourg selling around 1,500 2.5-litre diesel 350 Sherpa vans per year.
Both Freight Rover and Leyland Trucks will continue to pursue aggressively their own independent European marketing programmes for their fill product ranges.
Simpson sees the deal as a "very long-term agreement'', which is unlikely to be made redundantby any growth in Ins company's own Continental dealer network.
No details have been released of any modifications to the Leyland vehicles as part of the agreement although Leyland confirms that no lefthand-drive Roadrunners sold through Daf will he fitted with the current 98-Series engine.
The most likely replacement is the Cummins BSeries, which is expected to appear in UK Roadrunners in the autumn.