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There was a strong whiff of déjà vu at the
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recent launch of Fruehauf Tippers, which has fortunately acquired the kind of parent company it so desperately
needs. Brian Weatherley reports.
Before the dotcom bubble burst one of the most over-used,and over-hyped, expressions doing the rounds of investment banks was:-This time it's different." But for all too many it clearly wasn't. So why should the resurrection of Fruehauf Tippers under Wordsworth Holdings be any better? Good question.
Let's face it,FruehaurIippers (aka Crane Fruehauf, aka General Trailers, etc, etc) has had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra.And after a disastrous succession of owners Crane Fruehauf finally achieved 'flat-liner' status at the beginning of the year when the administrators were called in.
You could write a hook about how the UK's number one trailer maker fell from grace: maybe someday someone will. But right now Fruehauf has the kind of parent company it's often looked for but never quite found.
On the face of it Wordsworth Holdings' previous experience in trailer manufacturing is not encouraging. Regular readers might recall that Wordsworth set up a joint curtainsider and reefer operation with the US trailer maker Utility, based around the old York plant at Northallerton, only to see it close in 2002.
Trailer business
Wordsworth Holdings chairman Duncan Wordsworth says:"It lost Om between us and said I'd never get into the trailer business again." So why has he?
Wordsworth runs a string of engineering companies with a .£50m turnover from the sprawling ex-Aveling Barford site at Grantham. Among other things it produces dumper trucks, prison cell fittings, shopping trolleys, seed drills and heavy duty wood chippers.
He certainly fits the over-used expression "entrepreneur"not least when it comes to acquiring ailing companies ripe for a turnaround. Fruehauf was, if anything, over-ripe.
"It was a good fit with our other engineering and fabrication businesses," says Wordsworth. [look for basic engineering businesses because it's what I know about. [look for a business where you can see it has a product that the market wants and where you don't have to change it every five minutes— and it wasn't the product that caused the company to fail. And then I look for poor management.- CF matched those criteria. When it finally came up for sale Wordsworth beat off an internal MBO team and a joint bid from Dennison and Weightlifter to snap up CF's tipper operation for a reported £1.5m.
Wordsworth is refreshingly direct when it comes to answeiing questions; he readily admits to watching Crane Fruehauf for a number of years:"It's been a joke company,but with a good procluct.When it went bust I only ever believed the tipper business was worth keeping."And now the entire CF tipper assembly line— described by Wordsworth as the jewel in the crown — has been shipped from Dereham to Grantham, ready to start churning out trailers under the Fruehauf rippers banner.
Products will include the familiar bath-tub design as well as a smoothsider, but no curtainsiders. Wordsworth reckons he learned his lesson with Utility:"I don't think anyone can make a curtainsider at the price you need to sell it at. When we were running Utility I was the most efficient curtainsider manufacturer in the country, and I still couldn't make enough out of them."
Along with the assembly line Wordsworth has acquired arguably Fruehaufs most valuable asset: its people. including Crane Fruehauf's former sales and marketing director Dave Tallent, now FruehaufTippers' MD,and a host of key engineering and sales staff.
Wordsworth Holdings has also signed up three major distributors: DG Taylor Commercials in Yorkshire; Pannell Commercials in Cornwall; and Newton Commercials in Bedfordshire, previously UK dealer for Stas.
Newton's appointment is a coup for Wordsworth and Tallent. As agent for Stas. Newton sold some 450 new and used trailers a year; prior to changing camps it was a real thorn in the side of Crane Fruehauf s sales operation .as well as its other rivals.
one manu acturer
In fact Newton's arrival has led Wordsworth andTal lent to revise their production targets from an original 500 trailers a year "without doing too much" to an annual rate of 700.
Equally encouraging for Wordsworth, many Fruehauf tipping trailer customers have kept their nerve. For example, DO Taylor boss David Taylor says that although waiting cost his company thousands of pounds in lost orders it's been worth it.
"I had approaches from other manufacturers hut preferred to wait," he reports."I believe I've made the right decision "The dealership has since place advance orders with Fruehauf for 30 tippers, worth more than £1m. According to Tallent:"Some 95% of pending CF orders at the date of the closure were transferred to the new FruehaulOur order book is full up to September."
Extending the range
Tallent plans to extend the Fruehauf Tippers range with steel-bodied tipping trailers and. intriguingly, rigid tippers. By the second half of the year he expects Fruehauf Tippers to hold up to 50% of the market for tipping trailers and bulkers,adding:"I'd like to be at 60-70%... I think that's attainable."
His optimism might well be justified.The company has finally got some financial muscle behind it from a group that is not wholly dependent on the whims of the trailer market. Wordsworth is all too well aware of the vagaries of the UK trailer sector but is confident that the diverse nature of his engineering group would help Fruehauf Ti ppers survive any downturn: "If it happens, it happens. Jean weather the storm. I'd only have a problem if all of my markets went off a cliff." •