New roads open up from Turkey to UK
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• by Brian Weather*
Three years ago, at the Frankfurt Show, CM revealed that the Turkish truck maker BMC was planning to attack the UK market, the assumption being that it would do so as a stand-alone venture. That turned out to be a false assumption, as BMC had other ideas on how it would enter Britain.
Before the year was out, ERF had unveiled a brand new range of 18-tonne "budget" EP
rigids, based on, you guessed it, BMC's "Professional" series. And until recently ERF has been perfectly happy selling BMC's Turkish-built middleweight, albeit with its own badge at the front of the distinctive Pininfarina-designed cab.
Enter MAN as ERF's new parent. Suddenly the future of the EP looked in doubt. If ERF was to sell a badge-engineered truck, it was clearly going to be based on an MAN, and earlier this year ERF boss John Bryant confirmed the agreement with BMC was coming to an end.
You'd think that would be enough for BMC. Not a bit of it. It's determined to stay in the UK and is now setting up its own British importer charged with bringing in Professional series trucks, complete with specialist bodywork, as well a range of bus and coach models.
The UK operation is being led by industry veteran Vic Wright,
a man with plenty of experience in setting up importers and dealerships. The company headquarters will initially be based at Nottingham On the site previously occupied by Scania
dealer East Midland Commercials.
Appointing dealers
According to Wright, BMC's UK operation (trading under the name of Bus & Motors Commercial Limited) is looking to appoint between 15-20 dealers throughout the UK and Ireland with dealers handling both trucks and PSVs.
Word of the new venture is already out, and Wright says he has been contacted by a number of would-be dealers, including existing franchised distributors looking to add an extra marque.
BMC's sales target for its first full year is relatively modest-500 vehicles by the end of 2002. But its plans for developing the business are anything but modest. Wright says BMC is committed to bringing in a full range of vehicles, which will see new models appearing in weight bands both above and below the current line-up.
First to arrive is a 4x218-tonner and a 26-tonne 6x2. (See tint box, right) By the CV Show next year we'll hear about new models, "but not tractors", says Wright. Operators will also be able to specify their vehicles with a range of predominantly specialist bodywork including: • skip loaders; • refuse compactors; • cement mixers; • curtainsiders: • tankers.
All the above will be supplied through local Turkish bodybuilders with BMC using UK bodybuilders as de facto "consultants" to the Turkish suppliers. They will advise on the best specification for UK customers, "so that a tanker, a mixer or whatever is specced appropriately to the UK market," insists Wright.
Where bodywork cannot be sourced in Turkey, for example with box vans, it will be provided by a UK supplier.
Wright cites a number of advantages in supplying "whole" vehicles. "I've always felt there is a market for ready-built trucks and that bodybuilders and chassis builders have reinforced that view. From the distributors' standpoint there's still a relatively long lead-time for these type of vehicles, not least when it comes to moving chassis between the dealer and bodybuilder—someone has to fund that, whereas we'll ship in a completely bodied unit. BMC is talking about a 10-12 week lead time for a complete truck."
And will a complete vehicle be cheaper, as well as quicker on arrival? Wright has no doubt. "You'll enjoy the economy of the Turkish cost of bodybuilding and a whole product two-year warranty, so you'll only have to go to one place for everything.
"We will sell chassis cabs if people want them, but the realistic answer is that a bodied vehicle is normally more competitively priced than a chassis cab—and generally we'd be looking to offer savings of up to 10% on a complete vehicle."
Competitive prices
However, Wright adds: "We're waiting to see how competitive Cummins, Euro-3 prices are before we firm up ours."
All importers suffer from currency fluctuations, but BMC in Turkey has agreed to price all its UK-bound product in sterling, rather than in US dollars. "They accept we're not currency dealers. We're motor tradersr asserts Wright.
Whatever the final price, Wright confirms that BMC is pri
marily looking to woo operators in niche markets, particularly those in the waste business.
Wright reports that typical target customers are those that want a no-nonsense, less sophisticated product "typically the kind of skip operator that ran the old SK Mercedes. We've learnt a lot from the Elf rela
tionship, particularly in terms of confidence in the product."
Wright says existing EP operators "felt they were buying a truck with components that were so well known—we've had good feedback from them, and the picture I'm getting is that reliability is good and ERF has supported it well."