Rover rejects buyout at Scammell Trucks
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The proposed management buyout of Special Trucks — formerly the old Scammell Motors Plant at Watford — has been given the thumbs down by its owners, the Rover Group, as "not commercially acceptable".
Managing director of Special Trucks, Vic Wilkes, had been trying to put together a buyout package, which could have resulted in a small independent company building a limited number of specialist vehicles.
Wilkes says that the plan involved the acquisition of selected assets and liabilities of the plant, but following its rejection the final shutdown at Special Trucks will go ahead at the end of next year with the loss of 600 jobs. The last trucks are expected to be completed by August 1988.
On Monday (12 October) Wilkes told the workforce: "Things did not work out — clearly we're now on a runout programme." The decision has come as a blow to Wilkes, who had been trying to get the buyout up and running since the original Leyland Daf merger in February.
Although Special Trucks is still building Scammell Constructor eight-wheelers and Roadtrain 6x2 tractive units at Watford, the production of these vehicles will gradually be transferred to Leyland as Watford is run down. Leyland Daf is looking at the possibility of also switching the production of S26 heavy haulage tractors to Leyland, but the company is not thought to have any plans to carry on with the Landtrain range.
When Leyland and Daf merged, the Watford Scammell plant was not included in the deal, and has remained the property of the Rover Group.
0 John Dickson-Simpson, chairman of consultancy company Transport Press Services and editor of Transport Engineer, is considering helping to set up a consortium which could take over the Leyland engine plant, which is also scheduled to close. The engine plant currently builds the TL11 and 400 Series diesels.