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(RAVEN'S NEW TASK MASTER
Page 126
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Britain's third biggest trailer builder, Craven Tasker, wants to be seen as one firm, instead of a group of four companies, each making its own products.
• A new design supremo is spearheading Craven Tasker's plans to facelift its semitrailer bodies before the Government increases maximum trailer lengths to 13.6 metres. Philip Field joins from rival Crane Fruehauf as part of a bid by the Sheffieldbased manufacture to centralise design and improve marketing.
He will head a team of four designers: one based at each of Craven Tasker's factories. Field will co-ordinate product development, rather than come up with radical new models, says managing director Dennis Kenyon, adding that design was something the company lacked when he took over in 1988.
Previously, CT customers had to deal with the plant which made the model they wanted. Now, while local sales offices have not been disbanded — Kenyon thinks local contact with customers is important — each team will now handle all the group's products. However, each plant will continue to specialise.
"We want to promote the concept of Craven Tasker having one identity," says Kenyon, who was in charge of the Sheffield factory until the retirement of Norman MeHors last year. "We have dropped the names Craven Tasker Sheffield, Craven Tasker Garstang etc. Now we call ourselves Craven Tasker Limited — It makes the customer's job easier."
REPORT DIRECTLY
Salesmen will now report directly to sales director John Hope, who is based in Sheffield. The changes follow the takeover of Craven Tasker 18 months ago by Northern Ireland-based Ballyvesey Holdings, which owns trailer manufacturer Montracon and haulier Montgomery Transport. It aims to forge links between the two trailer firms.
Craven Tasker, which has boosted its output by 40% in 18 months, has been improving production at its four factories: Sheffield, which makes bodies and refrigerated trailers; Woodville, (curtains, tippers and flats): Cumbernauld (skeletals) and Garstang (rigid bodies).
A re-equipped production line at Woodville has doubled output of curtainsiders to 25 a week. It can now build curtains on other manufacturer's chassis, or a Craven Tasker chassis which has had another make of body fitted.
Extra factory space at Cum6ernauld has allowed the manufacturer to split its operation there in two. One part of the plant now builds chassis; the other handles work such as shotblasting, painting, electries, flooring, piping and pre-delivery preparation. Quality control has been tightened-up and capacity has been increased by 66%.
Craven Tasker is looking at ventures with Montracon and another trailer manufacturer in which Ballyvesey bought a 50% stake last year: Blumhardt in Wuppertal, West Germany, will help Craven Tasker market its products on the Continent.
PRODUCTION CAPACITY
It. is also using the Bluinhardt plant which specialises in flats, trailer vans and drawbars, to boost production capacity when demand is up in this country. says Kenyon. But CT will not import any German products: "We have a more comprehensive range and they don't do anything we don't do,' he says.
Kenyon and Hope are cautious about revealing plans for new products, but say they are not looking at car transporters or tankers. Drawbars are one of their fastest-growing lines. "We have always been into drawbars, and they have always been popular on the Continent, but of late there has been a resurgence of interest here," says Kenyon.
Lately, big Tesco and Asda contracts have boosted Craven Tasker's revenues, but rental companies are the real growth market, representing 15% of sales, and about 30% of the company's output is flats and other chassis, while vans represent 25%. Curtainsiders account for 20%; tip pers 10%, and drawbars 5%. The company turns over £38 million.
It is working to achieve BS5750 by 1992, says Kenyon. "We have a quality engineer within the group and we are moving towards producing a quality manual. But if our major customers were demanding it of us, we would be in a bigger hurry." He also says Craven Tasker is ready to produce bigger trailers as soon as the Government implements the EC directive in 1991.
CT, which celebrated its 175th birthday last year, was bought by John Brown in 1968. In 1986, John Brown in turn was taken over by Trafalgar House, which sold CT to Ballyvesey. Craven Tasker is autonomous within the Ulster-based group.
Next year CT will miss the Birmingham Motor Show for the third time. Like many manufacturers, it says it finds costs of attending too high and can target potential customers better through its own sales fairs. It held a two-day event for 400 clients at Hendon last year, and plans another for Donnington soon.