Bedford — an appmisal
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• If the collapse of government talks with General Motors in March was the last nail in Bedford's coffin as a truck and PSV builder, the coffin lid was firmly in place as long ago as last November.
That was when year-long discussions between GM and Enasa (the Spanish state-owned group that builds Pegaso trucks and also owns Seddon Atkinson) came to an end.
Many pundits, including several senior Enasa managers, were convinced that those talks would lead to a major joint venture between Bedford, Seddon Atkinson and Pegaso, one result of which would have been all three sharing the Cabtec EnasaiDaf new cab which is expected to be unveiled next year.
It remains unclear exactly why these talks were unsuccessful, but it is believed that GM, rather than Enasa. was the party that pulled out.
Earlier in 1985 it seemed likely that MAN of West Germany was about to become the GM partner to save Bedford. In that instance it was MAN that withdrew, probably to the relief of Daimler-Benz which was obviously keen to keep the world's biggest automotive group out of the truck business in Germany.
MAN and Enasa were the two most logical partners for Bedford in Europe. Even if the LeylandiLand Rover deal had gone through there is little doubt that Bedford's Dunstable truck plant would have been closed and production transferred to Leyland's under-utilised assembly plant in Lancashire.
By the end of this year there will be only about 1,000 employees at the Dunstable plant, assembling military trucks for Bedford's MO!) contract (which runs until 1988) and completely knocked down kits of Tj. TK and some bus models for export.
Before announcing that it was to end Bedford's civilian truck and bus produc iikiiim non, GM is believed to have made one last attempt to find a European partner, with the heavily loss-making Renault truck division in France.
Bedford has made it clear that it will continue to build its van range at Luton and says that its product engineering group at Luton, which works for the Detroit-based GM Truck and Bus group, will be unaffected.
At its peak the Bedford workforce totalled 10,000. By the end of this year it will be about 4,000.