Rootes Expansion Plans
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AHINT that higher-capacity vehicles would be introduced in the future by the commercial vehicle division of the Rootes Group—Dodge, Commer and Karrier—was given on Monday by Mr. R. Watson Lee, managing director of the division. He was speaking at a Press reception to show progress on a £3m. expansion and reorganization programme at the Rootes factories in Luton and Dunstable. "We intend to build trucks as heavy as they can go", he said.
The programme in hand by Rootes included a 172,000 sq. ft. extension to the existing assembly plant at Dunstable with new assembly racks and a new paintshop. This would increase the building capacity for medium and heavy trucks by 80 per cent.
Initial production in the extension was scheduled to start in October this year, said Mr. Lee, and assembly of some Dodge models would be transferred there to allow the Kew factory to concentrate on the production of heavier and more specialized vehicles in the Dodge range. Some Dodge chassis were already assembled at Dunstable. • Transfer of the body shop to Dunstable was also planned and this would allow reorganization of the Luton factory so that production of chassis components could keep pace with the increased assembly capacity. Other building plans included the construction of a 71,000 sq. ft. office block to house the central administration of the commercial vehicle division.