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156 
A EUROPEAN ADVENTURE?
Page 20
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Li The credit crunch has had an impact on the UK market, as Mark Cuskeran, SIDC managing director, confirms, "If you look at the early
part of the year, 2008 was doing well everyone was still buying, and the market [UK and Ireland] was going to be over 20,000. But in 2009, it'll be maybe 15,000 units. It's going to depend on the banks."
Not that long ago, rumours were buzzing around (incorrectly as it turned out) that SDC was considering building trailers in Eastern Europe. It wasn'tand Isn't. Indeed, business development manager, Don Campbell says: "We've made huge capital investment in the UK. We're a UK-based manufacturer. The days of opening cheap plants in Poland are over. Their costs are as comparable to the UK. If we're going into Europe we're going in with a partnership. We've got an efficient plant here that can pump out chassis at a competitive rate.'
CM understands that 'partnership' could wet be sealed in the next six months, possibly with a French trailer-maker looking for a good chassis supply, Meanwhile, if SDC's lean manufacturing approach collects plaudits, so does its financial performance. ''SDC's turnover for 2008 will be £95m up from £92m in 2007," reports Cuskeran. "And our profit is higher than the industry average" says Campbell. "It would need to be!"