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Building business in Britain
Page 146
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Germany specialist bodybuilder Schmitz Trailers has a reputation for innovative design and good quality: now its UK subsidiary is looking for partners to start manufacturing over here. • Schmitz Trailers is likely to be assembling refrigerated and other rigid bodies in the UK by the end of the year (CM 4-10 May). The German reefer specialist's sales and marketing subsidiary, Schmitz UK, is looking for a partner to form a joint company to mount body shells imported from Germany on UK-built chassis.
Schmitz, UK, based in Wokingham, Berkshire, was formed only a year ago. Founder Preston Allen and business development director Peter Webb have approached 14 potential partners including fully fledged bodybuilders and fridge unit and tail-lift fitters.
They might also set up their own subsidiary, although they admit this would take more time to organise and "get the right team together". The UK operation will only fit bodies and not build kits. Allen says other bodybuilders have made this mistake, including Norfrig which had a failed deal with Silver Arrow.
He also stresses that "the wrong partner can do more harm than good". Schmitz wants to work with a bodybuilder which meets its standards. -Many firms have preconceived ideas of their own, or if they are any good. they might already be doing a temperature-controlled
product which clashes with Ours."
He says that setting up in the UK could cut up to £300 from the cost of assembling a body on a UK-built chassis, such as Leyland Daf or ERE British chassis currently have to be shipped to Germany.
It would produce only models that use Schmitz's Feroplast thin steel-coated polyurethane-sandwich linings, which are made in Berlin. The expense of Feroplast makes it uneconomical to use on anything other than reefer or double-deck clothing-van bodies, says Allen.
Schmitz UK uses three repair and parts companies in Britain, who Webb says are being considered as partners. They are Shorts in Bedford, David Payne in Maidstone, and Fleming & Taylor in Airdrie.
Allen says the UK plant would follow the tradition of Schmitz, which prides itself on its ability to pre-empt consumer demand rather than designing directly to customer specifications. "Too many customers buy a truck first and run along to their local bodybuilder later. One of our benefits is that we have the ability to produce in far greater numbers," he says.
Allen, formerly a regional sales manager with Boalloy, who has also worked for Crane Fruehauf and Rentco, reckons he knows the British marketplace better than his bosses in Germany and says that he, not the Germans, will decide how to form the UK assembly operation.
Schmidt markets its trailers under the brand name Cargobull. Its plant in Altenberge makes chassis; Vreden produces insulated bodies, and Berlin manufactures Feroplast insulated panels.
Production of insulated bodies has been growing in relation to its other products: 61% of its output is insulated vans and 38% tilt bodies. Special vehicles such as tankers and low loaders, which formed a big slice of its production in the 1970s, today represent just 1%. Feroplast is sold to several bodybuilders.
The company says it has 43.1% of the German market for insulated semi-trailers and 25.1% in tilt semi-trailers. Its turnover has increased 10-20% annually during the past four years and sales outlets are established in most western European countries with branches planned for Spain, Italy and Portugal.