Positive cutting boosts BoaHoy
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by Bryan Jarvis • When Boalloy's vehicle park overflows with rigids, triplestacked trailer chassis and body kits for foreign sales it's a sure sign that business is at last beginning to bloom again at Congleton.
It's nearly two years since the company was bought from Marling Industries. Following a re-financing package and investments in extra production facilities and manpower. 1994's order book is filling up.
Last year the company made 5.3% profit on a turnover of £20.4m—this year it is on target to make 6.7% on a turnover of £25m. Two new factories are coming on line; improvements are being made to aftersales service; a Dutch agent has been appointed; exports are rising and there's good news on the product front, especially on intermodals.
Managing director Gerry Brown is delighted by the upturn, but points out that even during the trailer market's slide from the peaks of 1988/89 Boalloy maintained a good slice of the cake: "This has risen from nearly 21% of 1991's trailer total of 4,500 to 27.4% of the 7,150 trailers sold in the UK last year."
The SMMT predicts growth in rigid and trailer sales to around 14,000 and 10,200 units over the next two years, and Boalloy plans to keep increasing its share.
But this level of success hasn't been handed to Boalloy on a plate. "Prior to the MBO in 1992 we had too much negative activity with many of our heavy losses relating to exports," says Brown. The company had to make massive cuts in its fixed costs to achieve its current return on sales. Brown aims to push it higher, despite "the rampaging prices of materials. "Steel has had three consecutive 7.0% rises; aluminium has gone up by 14% in the past few months; and the currency devaluation in the Autumn of '92 pushed the price of plastics to ridiculous heights."
Multiple orders
However, with more than 300 trailers parked up awaiting bodies the signs are that multiple orders are coming back: "We've large orders in hand for TIP, Millers, Curries International, Ferrymaster, TransAmerica Leasing and the MoD," he says, "but there are plenty being built for the small operator too which we value highly—after all they're our bedrock."
With an order book running towards July the factory is regularly building 200 bodies a month and the curtain plant is double shifted. These figures have justified a .£1.2m investment in the two new factories and equipment which will expand the 345-strong workforce.
To meet growing demand in the North one of the new sites has been set up at Bellshill, near Glasgow in the former Laidlaw Trucks site. This addition to Boalloy's Cumbernauld site will increase manufacturing support to Scottish hauliers.
With Boalloy developing a version of its multi-height curtained body for the lightened Wabash road-rail chassis, its position close to the Scottish end of the Eurotunnel link at Mossend is no co-incidence, Bellshill will have 35 skilled employees by the summer under general manager Gerry Brophy; the first batch to be made there will be 30 Tautliners for Curries International. "We can't wait to bring the new Scottish plant on stream," says Brown.
The other new factory, in Purfleet, Essex, will handle repairs and refurbishments as well as building rigid curtainsiders up to 17 tonnes gross.
The former Ensign Bus depot is strategically sited at J30 on the M25, near the busy A13 link to Thames ferry terminals. It's also handy for Ford of Dagenham and the two companies have collaborated on trailer repairs and refurbishments.
Boalloy is stepping up its continental activities by signing up a new partner to cover the Benelux countries.
Reefer and livestock body specialist Heering, which also uses Akzo's lightweight aramid fibres, will build Boalloy's full range at Vassen in the Netherlands. This deal supersedes an arrangement with former Boalloy employee Wim van Dam. While the company has been focusing on its UK/EC revival, the supply of CKD kits has also begun to increase to licensees outside the EC: the US, Australia, Japan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The latest overseas order is for twenty four 13.6m Tautliner trailers with Cabriolet roll-back roofs for a customer in Taiwan.
Boalloy is about to introduce a parts catalogue which it hopes will help operators identify their needs more easily. The parts operation is being restructured but prices will not be increased—the price of more than 700 items will fall up to 12% and the price of fast-moving spares "will drop further".