Gardner's new patch
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blocks and connecting rods.
BEL already has extensive operating experience with Gardner engines, having remanufactured some 3,500 Gardner diesels for London Buses during the past eight years. London Buses also has more than 2,500 Gardnerengined buses currently in operation.
Perkins estimates that in its first full year of operation BEL will be capable of producing 1,000 Gardner engines for truck, bus, coach and marine application with the automotive diesel output split into 60% PSV and 40% truck. The engines will continue to be sold and marketed under the Gardner name, as part of the Perkins Engines Group.
Transferring all assembly and production activities to BEL at Chiswick will result in 45 redundancies at Patricroft, although Perkins is hoping that these job losses can be achieved voluntarily.
Perkins Engines' managing director John Devaney says the move represents a new future for Gardner. "Its engines remain highly competitive for operators in the UK, but in order that they can be produced at competitive prices we have for some time been reviewing the possibilities of a joint venture," he explains.
The joint deal will certainly benefit BEL which is currently losing around 23.5 million a year, and has been put up for sale by owners London Regional Transport. BEL chairman Bill Fairhall reports that the agreement is "an ideal marriage whereby both our companies and customers benefit".
Fairhill claims the venture will make BEL more attractive to the number of so-far unnamed potential buyers, but it will not effect the current programme of redundancies at BEL, where the workforce still has to be cut from 800 to around 600.
According to both partners, neither has made any investment in the joint venture, as the production capability is already in place at Chiswick. Fairhill believes, however, that the deal will allow BEL to maximise both its plant and production expertise.
The setting up of the joint venture will also place BEL and Gardner in a good position for winning new business when London Buses finally decides to purchase new double-deckers.
Although LB is not looking to invest in new vehicles for the next 12 months at least, having the joint venture, capable of remanufacturing and supplying Gardner engines, within its own operating area will provide a strong incentive to continue buying Gardnerengined vehicles.