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The man with a ram
Page 24
Page 25
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Edbro's managing director Andrew Jones is setting out some clear plans for growth. Andy Salter gets the low-down.
We are always fascinated by market forces and how the prominence of companies changes over time. The UK commercial vehicle industry, indeed British manufacturing in general, is littered with examples of once-dominant brands falling from grace.
Take Edbro, a giant in the world of tipping gears for the construction sector. Here is a company that had an unassailable market lead in the I 970s and 1980s with a global reputation for its class-leading products. But for a variety of reasons the firm's eye strayed from the ball and its market position has been eroded over the past 15 years or so.
Now don't get us wrong Edbro still commands more than 50% of the UK tipping gear market for trucks, and for many it is still the name in tipping rams. But by its own admission the company has been through a major restructuring over the past Five years or more; a restructuring which, according to MD Andrew Jones, has strengthened its product line-up and laid the foundations for growth.
Based at Bolton
We caught up with Jones at Edbro's Bolton headquarters, where the company knocks out thousands of tipping-gear rams a year for trucks and quarrying equipment. He joined the firm 18 months ago and in that time has set about changing the culture of the organisation to be more focused on the customer.
Jones is one of those people whose energy is infectious. During the course of our interview he outlined some of the company's opportunities for worldwide growth the Middle East, India, China and spoke enthusiastically of how he is engaging the workforce in his plans and unlocking the talent in the organisation. "We have lots of talented people here at Edbro, but if that talent isn't unlocked it's of no use," he says.
But first we asked about the brand. Considering Edbro's strength in the UK tipper market the company's profile has been surprisingly low over the past live years: "When I arrived it was clear that while we had a strong brand, the company's image was gathering dust," he explained.-We needed to dust down the brand and give the market the confidence that we were still here and here for the long haul."
New people have been recruited to the sales and marketing team and Jones is committed to ensuring the company can satisfy the needs of its customers both in the UK and further afield. The initial results are promising: sales for 2005 topped £30m, and 2006 is likely to exceed those returns. Edbro's UK market share is improving and its new lightweight CX15 tipping gear debuted at the CV Show in April.
"We've always had the lightest front-end tipping gear on the mar ket," says Jones. With the new CX15 we've been able to shave a further 60kg off. We've applied finite element analysis (FEA) to the development process, allowing us to make significant product improvement as well as saving weight."
Edbro is also working to ensure backup is as strong as possible. Currently there are 61 dealers in the network and Jones is clear what their focus should be: We have to be more responsive to the needs of the customers. We're looking to reduce lead times and the changes we make now should give some real improvements to end users."
e ave to be more responsive to the We re oo ing to
Looking for Eastern promise
Outside the UK Edbro is eying a number of opportunities, with Eastern Europe among the areas identified for growth. "Currently we're selling to customers who are selling our products," says Jones. "In order to enter fully into these new markets we have to develop the service network. We're identifying agents and training them to ensure they can give us the response [we want] and the image we wish to convey."
Further down the development pathway Jones, like most European industrialists, has earmarked India and China as major opportunities for growth."In 1999 there were no front-end cylinders [tipping gears] in use in India," he remarks. That market is now responsible for around 15,000 front-end gears a year.We're currently not in that market. It's in the development plan!"
The industrial towns of northern England were once world famous for their engineering companies, and Edbro is an all-too-rare continuation of that proud tradition.
Under Jones' dynamic stewardship, the company's workforce has been galvanised around a clear and rational strategy for growth. Combine that with high quality products and the future of this UK manufacturer appears bright. •