The bottom line
Page 22
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Seddon Atkinson's Spanish parent Pegaso may be in the throws of a proposed takeover by a MAN/Daimler-Benz consortium. But sales and marketing director Bob Sculfor is adarnent that whatever happens, operators will have priority.
• Seddon Atkinson's sales and marketing director Bob Sculfor has a forthright view of the Oldham-based truck maker's future — and of what will happen if its Spanish parent Pegaso falls under the control of the proposed MAN/DaimlerBenz consortium.
"Seddon Atkinson has had a chequered ownership career and everybody knows it," he says. "But we have never to my knowledge let our customers down on the support basis. We're going into a more positive era with our highly sophisticated German partner, and the product plans we have developed recognise the needs of our market place.
"Our customers should continue to place their confidence in a company that has a much healthier future than it perhaps has had for the past 10 years or so."
Talk of the proposed MAN/ Daimler-Benz takeover of Pegaso so far blocked by the German Cartel Office — has clearly had its effect in Britain, says Sculfor, creating an undercurrent of uncertainty among Seddon buyers and operators. "There's definitely a ground swell I've experienced with certain traditional Seddon users that the future of Seddon Atkinson is again in the melting pot and, as the new players are MAN/Mercedes who have very strong European links, that they may swallow the company up to a point where the Seddon Atkinson marque that they know and love will be gradually eliminated."
Sculfor is convinced that the foundation of Seddon's success in the UK — namely its commitment to a bespoke Cummins/Fuller/Rockwell driveline beneath a modern cab — represents the key to its long-term survival under a German-dominated consortium.
"Seddon Atkinson's own product plan under Pegaso very clearly identifies the product route that we are taking for the nineties and beyond," he explains. "We will retain the Cummins/Fuller/Rockwell driveline and that plan has been endorsed by Pegaso as still the parent company of Seddon Atkinson."
More importantly that plan has also been reviewed by Enasa's two German suitors, who Sculfor believes "would never get into the realms of bastardising their own product, and because they are unlikely to fit a Cummins engine into a MAN or Mercedes they would retain that driveline in the UK in order to hold on to the market share and presence Seddon Atkinson has. In discussions I've had with Germans, obviously on a fact-finding tour, they've been very positive."
What's more Sculfor is adamant that it would not profit either MAN or Mercedes to try and kill off Seddon Atkinson in order to gain its current 4.9% stake of the UK heavy truck market above 15 tonnes; not least because they would be unlikely to convert those existing Seddon customers, who still prefer a Cummins/ Fuller/Rockwell driveline over an integrated one.
The natural (and probably valid) assumption would be that if they couldn't buy it from Seddon they would switch to ERE or Foden which would rebound on the new owners of Enasa "I don't believe they would want to lose that market share," says Sculfor.
While a joint MAN/DaimlerBenz consortium might be happy to let Seddon go along the bespoke driveline route in the short-term, they could of course revise their attitude and try to convert existing Seddon operators to a German marque.
But Sculfor believes that "if they had wanted to they could have done it over the past five to 10 years . . . if a manufacturer really puts its mind to it, it can win any customer away — we are confident of that."
Like ERF and Foden, Seddon has a number of blue-chip buyers, especially in the oil companies, who believe in a pro-British buying policy. "if you view the customers that Seddon has, many are traditional companies who would not particularly want to go into foreign products," Sculfor points out. "Seddon Atkinson, although part of Pegaso, is still considered a British company."
If an Enasa takeover does go ahead Sculfor maintains that Seddon Atkinson's "British" tag could still remain intact: "I think that our identity will be preserved. The company is perceived to be a traditional British company, very small and very receptive and therefore easy to get into. . . there isn't a significant hierarchy."
The Spanish government is certainly keen to see Enasa taken off its hands, but the attempts by the German Cartel Office and the European Commission to block the joint MAN/D-B plan has placed the German bid in serious doubt.
Last week Spanish industry minister Claudio Aranzadi was due to hold talks with the West German government in Bonn in what was described as a "desperate" effort to save the takeover plan, valued at £154m. Under the original proposal MAN would hold 60% of Enasa; Daimler-Benz would take 20% and 20% would be retained by the Spanish government.
Since then it has been suggested that Enasa be split in two with Daimler-Benz taking the light truck division and MAN running the heavy truck operation. Whatever the formula, both companies have made it clear that they will only buy Enasa on their own terms.
if the deal does go through Sculfor sees extra sales opportunities for Seddon Atkinson. For example, its dealers could have a dual franchise arrangement selling vehicles outside the company's current weight range — and he would not restrict supply to either MAN or Mercedes: "I believe we could have a 7.5 or 11-tonner, but it wouldn't necessarily be the MAN G90."
The bottom line is that most long-term Seddon operators will always be at the heavy end of the market, and they will be looking for a guarantee that the vehicle they buy today will not disappear after two years.
Sculfor stresses: "The guarantee will always be that Seddon Atkinson, or Pegaso, today as a company always has and always will stand by its operators."
LJ by Brian Weatherley