BEDFORD: Customers' response
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• After the Ministry of Defence, Bass is Bedford's largest customer in the UK, operating 1,200 Bedford TLs in rigid and urban articulated forms.
Roger Dennis, Bass distribution director, says, "We've standardised, we've put all our eggs in one basket, the biggest basket (ie GM) and they've let us down." Bass will have to consider very quickly and very carefully what it will do now to replace the Bedfords, says Dennis.
There is little wrong with the Bedford TL says Dennis and Bedford need not have spent a lot of money on the vehicle to make it more competitive.
Dennis admits that the news came as a great shock, "I don't believe it, you can't lose a name like Bedford." He says there must be a real possibility that someone will bid for Bedford's truck assembly lines because the name is worth a great deal.
He foresees a time in the future when parts and spares may be difficult to come-by, and predicts Bedford re-sale values are "bound to drop".