Third world targets
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Marshall SPV of Cambridge is planning to meet the demand for rugged, no-nonsense trucks for overseas and the local councils in the UK.
by Steve Banner • Third World transport operators aren't interested in advanced Western trucks fitted with everything from electronically controlled gearboxes to air conditioning, They want a nononsense vehicle that can be maintained by a roadside mechanic with basic hand tools.
That's the view of Marshall SPY, and that's the demand it plans to meet. Marshall bought the AWD truck business from the receivers in 1992; it is now assembling vehicles at the rate of three a day in a converted aircraft hangar across the road from Cambridge airport.
Output could be doubled, says sales and marketing director Richard Halahan, The plant should produce more than 600 units this year, he says, with 90% going for export. "We'll also do a few hundred kits," he adds.
The company is targeting selected UK buyers, including public utilities and local authorities who need a rugged truck for snowploughigritter duties. "There are around 35 smallscale truck assemblers in Europe," Ilalahan points out." The bigger the big manufacturers get, the greater the opportunity for small operations like our own to build specialist chassis." He believes that sales will be boosted by the acquisition of exclusive rights to the Bedford name in Europe with worldwide rights to share the name with General Motors (CM 10-16 Feb).
Traditional
"In many Third World countries it is essential to have the Bedford badge on the product," Halahan explains. "They're very traditional, and are keen to stick with what they know."
Marshall has also bought the worldwide parts business for all Bedfords over 7.5 GVW. "It's being physically shifted from GM's warehouse at Toddington to our parts distribution place in Kent," says Halahan. With around 500,000 Bedfords still in service around the world that should be a rich long-term source of income.
The current range includes the venerable bonneted TJ 4x2 at 11 or 12.5 tonnes GVW; the -FL range of 4x2s and 6x4s from 13 tonnes to 24.39 tonnes; and the MT range of 4x4s and 6x6s from 12 tonnes to 26 tonnes, "We produce 24 differ
ent derivatives if you take into account all the variations," says Halahan. Most are designed with export in mind.
"The MT 13-18 13-tonne 4x4 is the core of our UK range at present, although we'll have the MT 17-21 4x4 coming out at the back end of spring," says UK sales manager Bob Cosby.
"The MT 17-21 will use a 157kW (210hp) Perkins Phaser engine; the MT 13-18 has a 134kW (180hp) Phaser. "Alongside the 17-21 we'll be launching a TL 17-21 17-tonne 4x2, again with a 210hp Phaser engine," says Cosby. "The back end of the year will see the introduction of a TL 13-18 13tonne 4x2 and that will have the 180hp Phaser."
The Phaser is the most common engine in the range, but the 26-tonne 6x6 MT 26-30 is fitted with a 224kW (300hp) Perkins Peregrine while the 6x4 24.39-tonne TL 24-27 uses a 198kW (265hp) Cummins 6CTAA unit.
The standard engine for the TJ is a Phaser, but it is also available with a 77kW (103hp) Bedford engine built by Beans Engineering.
Most of the cabs are supplied by Motor Panels, although Marshall is still producing TJ cabs in a corner of the old Bedford/AWD plant in Dunstable. It makes axles there too, but plans to transfer all Dunstable activities to Cambridge. However, there are no plans to revive the TM, says Halahan: "The cost of re-introducing the cab would be phenomenal."
Availability The 2,800m2 Cambridge factory has customers in the Far East, including Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia: other destinations are in the Gulf and the Caribbean "and we're doing business in 18 out of the 50-odd African countries," says Halahan, "There's no lack of demand, but availability of foreign exchange can limit the volume we do."
Key competitors include Steyr, Mercedes, and MAN; Renault and Iveco are also active in this sector. "The Indian truck industry is also looking at this business, but it has a long way to go," says Halahan.
by Third World aid agencies, but this does not apply to military vehicles.
This is a mar ket which Balaban and military sales specialist Rod Hamilton McLeod are keen to develop. "We've had some extremely successful trials, both in jungle applications and in soft sand," says Mahan. "We're looking at the UK MoD as a possible Bedford customer in the future," he adds. "Indeed we're already in discussion with them."
He is not worried by Malaysia's "Buy British last" policy. 'We've just completed a huge contract out there and all the rigids working on the Pergau damn project are ours," he says. "We'll still be exhibiting at the Malaysian Defence Show in April."
Marshall SPY is part of the family-owned Marshall group, which embraces 25 vehicle dealerships and an extensive aviation services business. It is also a major truck and bus bodybuilder, and an established MoD defence contractor. It has just completed a four-year contract to build flatracks for DROPS vehicles,