Cummins deny report of V engine production cuts in Europe
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
STRONG denials have been made by the Cummins Engine Co. Ltd. to suggestions that it intends to make significant changes in plans for the British market. At the beginning of this week there were newspaper reports which Cummins now says appreciably distorted the picture of changes in organization which it has made.
Details of the true situation were given to me on Monday by David Mansell, marketing director of the Cummins UK company.
What has taken place essentially is that Cummins has reorganized its activities in line with present conditions in an area which takes in Europe, Africa and Asia as far east as India. London was chosen as headquarters for marketing functions in this area in 1964 for a variety of reasons, among them the fact that Britain was considered the best market in both the long and short term.
This outlook is unchanged but Britain's failure to get into the Common Market and the restrictive measures proposed against transport in France and Germany has reduced the prospects of selling more widely in Europe. As a result, current activities in parts of the area can as easily be handled from the American headquarters of Cummins, and staff engaged on this work have been transferred back there.
The London office of Cummins now has responsibility only for the Cummins UK companies, and exports from them and with the reduced staff needed for this work and less importance on a convenient location with fewer visiting personnel, Cummins is considering the possibility of moving to a smaller office away from the centre of London.
Mr. Mansell admits that there have been less sales of the lightweight V engines in Britain than expected, but says that the two factories in Darlington are meeting the expected production target of 60 per cent of full volume (30,000 engines a year) which was set when the factory started up 18 months ago. Lower sales in Britain have been supported by good exports and about two-thirds of the production goes to overseas markets.
One of the Darlington factories is jointly owned with Chrysler and in recent months the two have been integrated, which has meant a small reduction in staff—about 90 of the 1,200 employed there. There has also been a reduction of about 30 in the 700 employed at the Cummins Shotts factory in Scotland where in-line engines are made. But quantities of in-lines made are not expected to be reduced very much because while Cummins
expects sales of trucks in the UK to be some 20 per cent down this year only one-third of the Cummins output goes for this use.
Reports last weekend said that Ford, which uses the Cummins lightweight V in the D 1000, is to offer the Perkins V8 as an alternative in June. Mr. Mansell would not comment on this—he said the question was outside his province—and Ford was not prepared to make any comment and would not say which of the units would be the standard fitting.