Showtime in Glasgow
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• Mr. Ronald Ellis performed his first public task as newly appointed chairman of Leyland Motors (Scotland) Ltd. and Albion Motors Ltd. on Tuesday when he welcomed visitors to Scotstoun, Glasgow, to see the Harland and Wolff works which Albion is to use for a £2,1-m expansion.
The new South Works, as they will be known, are just across the road from the main plant and will add 300,000 sq. ft.—representing a 25 per cent increase in productive floor area for Albion. Installation of machinery is to start in January, and full production is planned for January 1971.
Albion's axle production, now under heavy pressure for space, will be transferred to the South Works, making room for an initial increase of 20 per cent in vehicle production (the present figure is about 7,000 vehicles a year). A further 15 per cent -increase is planned later.
The company's axles and gearboxes are not only supplied to other BLMC truck factories in Britain but have recently started going also to ENASA in Spain, for use on the Pegaso Comet.
In his speech at Seotstoun on Tuesday, Mr. Ellis revealed that the direct toss of production caused by the recent strike at Leyland had been 2,600 commercial vehicles and 6,000 diesel engines_ Show banquet Loss of production through labour troubles was also a main theme of Mr. Douglas Richards, SMMT president, when he spoke at the Motor Show banquet of the Scottish Motor Trade Association in Glasgow on Monday. Exports were up, he said, but in the first nine months of this year strikes cost the motor industry 40 per cent more lost days than in the whole of last year.
The SMTA president, Mr. Morrison Sutherland, in his review of prospects and problems, explained the difficulties regarding h.g.v. licences facing traders whose staffs occasionally drove or tested heavy trucks. The SMTA council will shortly be issuing advice to members on this.
From the SMTA vice-president, Mr. Gibbon, came a warning to manufacturers about the concern caused by spares shortages. (Leaders of the manufacturing industry, including Lord Stokes, were among the top-table guests).
Mr. Gibbon said the problem had to be resolved soon if vehicles were to be kept on the road, and urged makers to produce extra spares to take care of contingencies such as factory stoppages_ Guy sales At a luncheon in Glasgow on Monday the joint managing director of Jaguar Cars Ltd., Mr. F. R. W. England, announced that in the first three days of the Scottish Show Guy had taken £÷m worth of orders from Scottish distributors. This followed sales of RI+m in October, and made a total of over £164m in the financial year to date.
Mr. England refuted the suggestion that manufacturers were "pushing" for higher weight limits; in producing a 44-tonner Guy was merely anticipating what might happen. It was also necessary to debunk the "juggernaut" titles which the 44-tormers had been given. In size they were nothing
new the 15 metre outfit and the 4011 container were already in use.
Current contracts for Daimler buses, he revealed, totalled £8m, and Daimler was now the biggest maker of rear-engined double-deckers in the country_