SCANIA OUTLET
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• Scania distributor Union Trucks is pumping £1.5m into a purposebuilt sales, service, and parts branch at Washington, Tyne & Wear. Scheduled to open next April, the 3.5-acre site is on the Pattinson Industrial Estate on the A1231, just off the 419. It will have a six-bay workshop that will be open round-the-clock on weekdays.
Union, which is owned by Scania, also operates depots at Newcastle upon Tyne, Darlington, and Thirsk. "All three of our existing workshops are working to capacity," says managing director Simon Dykes. Only Thirsk sells second-hand trucks at present, but Washington will have hard standing for a used vehicles display.
Union's territory sprawls from Yorkshire to the Scottish border, and Dykes calculates that the firm is taking 21.1% of the heavy truck market in its area. Most of the new tractors it sells are 6x2s—he reckons that his sales team is capturing around 50% of all 6x2 registrations. Customers are typically looking at power outputs from 380hp to 420hp, he adds, and they're showing increasing interest in contract hire: "60% of the business we do is contractrelated in one way or another," he remarks. Recent deals include the supply of 25 4-Series 420hp twin-steer tractors plated at 41 tonnes to Prestons of Potto.