AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

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By Noel Muller

26th January 1985
Page 21
Page 21, 26th January 1985 — By Noel Muller
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HESTAIR Duple is confidently predicting that the company is on the road back to profitability following a major factory reorganisation to improve efficiency and quality control.

Capacity and the size of the workforce at the Blackpool plant has been slimmed down and the build time for an average Laser 2 or Caribbean 2 body has been reduced from around nine to five weeks.

Delivery delays have been largely eliminated and the revised Laser and Caribbean bodies, introduced at the end of last summer, have been well received by the operating industry.

Improved quality control and rust proving techniques, together with more jig building has already produced a higher standard of finish for the range.

The lowheight Laser is available on Leyland Tiger, Volvo BlOM, Daf MB and Bedford Venturer chassis. The highfloor Caribbean 2 is not available on Bedford chassis but is offered on Dennis Dorchester chassis.

Plans exist to introduce a 9mlong version of the Laser• 2 body to supplement the 11m and 12m models. A rear-engined chassis may also be added to the options this year once the necessary jigs have been engineered.

Non-standard bodies and chassis combinations such as Dominant 29-seaters or the Dominant bus mounted on Bedford chassis will still be available, but will now be built to the structure stage on the main line before being transferred to Duple's service company for finishing and fitting out. Duple has pressed ahead with these plans following an encouraging reaction to Integral 425 coach introduced at last year's Motor Show.

The first pre-production high capacity integral coaches are already being built and should be on the road this summer.

Twelve coaches have been sold to independent and nationalised operators.

The Integral's success is essential for the Hestair Duple future strategy to work and a new production line to build three vehicles a week is to be set up in the main production hall parallel to the body-onchassis line.

The introduction of the Integral moves Duple into the business of complete vehicle manufacture and could provide the company with a suitable product for export.

By next year it hopes to be producing three Integrals per week in addition to seven bodies on chassis.

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