Metro-Cammel
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New Elmdon busworks to close by Derek Moses
• The bus building works of Metropolitan-Cammell-Weymann Ltd. at Elmdon, on the outskirts of Birmingham, is to be closed. Production of all four companies in the Metro Group lof which Cammell Laird (Metro} Ltd, has become the holding company) is to be concentrated at Washwood Heath as part of a "consolidation and concentration" policy.
Washwood Heath works, which is closer to Birmingham than the Efmdon works, is already occupied by Metro-Cammell Ltd., who build railway and tube rolling stock; MetroCammell Containers Ltd., and Metra-Cammell Engineers Ltd. who make general fabrications. The decision to move the bus-building section to the same site was confirmed by a spokesman of the holding company, and follows reports that production requirements of Metropolitan-Cammell-Weymann Ltd. have dropped by as much as 75 per cent.
About 400 workmen employed at Elmdon will become redundant by October as a result of the impending closure. Only 200 men are expected to move to the Washwood Heath factory, although the spokesman stressed that the bus-building work force will remain quite separate from those of the other Group companies.
The move to the new site will begin during the company's annual holidays and preparation for bus building at Washwood Heath has already begun. As a result of the scheme an overall reduction in costs should be achieved by 1970, the company claims. An official of the National Union of Vehicle Builders stated that the workers at Elmdon had been aware of the plan for some time and no union trouble was expected.
The Cammell Laird (Metro) spokesman blamed uncertainty over the PTA plans for the recession at Elmdon. It is an open secret, however, that the LTB contract for 650 single-deck bus bodies took up production capacity leading to the cancellation or transfer to other companies of orders from regular MCVV customers. This was because delivery dates then had to be placed too far ahead. Now that the London Transport work is coming to an end, MCW is looking for fresh orders.
With the MoT Bus Grants scheme well under way, a large number of tenders for new bus bodies are being invited, and MCVV hopes to reap some of these contracts. Export orders for Cuba, Turkey and Jamaica have also to be met and an encouraging note is that there is room for expansion at the Washwood Heath site. One important order recently announced in CM called for 60 33ft o-m-o double-deck bus bodies on Daimler Fleetline chassis for Manchester City Transport.