Towards a new trailer giant?
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by Tony Wilding
• The news that Cravens Industries Ltd. has reached an agreement to purchase Taskers Trailers Ltd. heralds the formation of another giant in the trailer industry. The acquisition of Taskers by this subsidiary of John Brown and Co. Ltd. fits in well with the activities of the Cravens. HomeHoy companies in the group who have leading positions in the manufacture of commercial bodies and .containers
There is very little overlapping in the work done by Taskers and the four factories coming under Cravens Industries Ltd, Taskers build only trailers—from 15cwt to 40 ton payload in every configuration and type—whereas Cravens Homalloy companies have done relatively little in semi-trailers, being concerned primarily with bodies for goods vehicles and containers. Cravens RomaHoy (Preston) Ltd. produces all types of bodies and controls a subsidiary factory at Rochford, Essex. Cravens Homalloy (Sheffield) Ltd. was formed from the Cravens set-up which produced railway rolling stock for over 100 years and is responsible for the large-scale production of containers, working closely with the Cravens HomaIloy (Woodville) Ltd. subsidiary.
It has been clear for some time that Cravens Homelloy was interested in expansion in the semi-trailer field. A licence with Strick of America under which 3,000 lightalloy containers have already been built in the two years since it was signed also covers semi-trailer production. But apart from showing Strick designs at exhibitions and the like relatively little has happened on this side. Cravens HamaHoy (Sheffield) Ltd. has pro duced some semi-trailers to special order—including 60 skeletals for Sea Land and an order for 400 refrigerated van semi-trailers for Danish Bacon, Expansion of the trailer activities was foreshadowed at the Commercial Motor Show with the introduction of a new van semi-trailer line based on Strick containers made at Sheffield. And this is followed up this week by the announcement of new 40ft skeletal trailers designed by Cravens Home Hoy.
The link between the two companies will have little effect on selling facilities as neither Taskers nor Cravens HomeRoy has distribution networks in the true sense of the word. Both rely primarily on their own sales forces and deal largely through normal motor trade channels. In the case of Taskers, the sales representatives are backed up by the three factories—at Andover, Cumbernauld and Skelmersdale—and there are distributors in Northern Ireland and Eire and one in South Wales. In its plans for expansion in semitrailers, Cravens Homalloy recently made a start on looking for distributors but nothing has yet been settled and it looks as though this plan will be put into cold storage for the
time being.
It also appears unlikely that there will be any early moves of integrating the activities of the companies concerned as there are immediate commercial advantages in the link, but in the long-term there will be obviously increased advantages in Integration of certain of the activities of Cravens HomeHoy (Sheffield) Ltd. and Taskers.