ERF plans increased truck manufacturing
Page 17
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• Independent British truck manufacturer ERF is to open a second production line.
The extra capacity at its Middlewich parts, service and engineering design centre will be used to build five ES6 17-tormers a day.
This is the first time the Middlewich plant has been used for full truck production. The company says it will be recruiting a "modest" number of mainly semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
Production will begin at Middlewich in January, initially at a rate of three a day. Chairman Peter Foden says the company ' aims to take 15% of the over16-tonnes market (it currently holds 11.6%).
ERF builds 20 E-series trucks a day at its Sandbach factory: the ES6 will be launched at the October Motor Show, along with the E8.
The expansion comes at a time of increasing sales and prosperity for ERF, which looked in danger of going under a few years ago when production slumped to seven units a day. In the first half of this year it broke its sales targets by 75%.
In June ERF claimed 18.1% of the artic sector above 28 tonnes with 255 registrations. Its pre-tax profits for last year were 25.61 million, up from £718,000 in 1986, and production rates are at their highest ever. The new line will raise total vehicle production to 25 vehicles a day.
ERF says that nearly all of the extra output will be aimed at the UK market, where the company has always had a loyal core customer base.
Full details of the two new models will be published next week (see pages 4-5).