BEDFORD LOYALTY
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• Greenhous Hereford is one of 47 dealers appointed to represent the AWD truck marque when it is launched.
The dealership belongs to the Greenhous group of companies, which has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with General Motors.
When, on 9 June 1986, General Motors announced its plans to pull out of volume truck production, the news came as a considerable blow. Greenhous had three Bedford dealers — at Hereford, Shrewsbury and in the Midlands — and, in Hereford at least, the commercial vehicle business accounted for between 65% and 70% of its total sales.
"It was a very serious, dramatic blow for us when Bedford pulled out," says Derek Newman, Greenhous Hereford's managing director. "hi that year Bedford took 14.33% of four-wheel truck sales in the UK. Here in Hereford we took 62.11%."
The announcement left the Greenhous group with a problem. How to continue trading in commercial vehicles after the demise of the marque which the company had represented for years.
The response within the Greenhous group has been varied. In the Midlands the company searched around for another British marque to represent and swiftly changed to Leyland. Ironically, it was not long before the Leyland Daf link-up gave the company a selection of Dutch-built trucks to add to its range. The Greenhous dealership in Shrewsbury also switched to Leyland Daf about two months ago. At Hereford, however, Newman and his commercial vehicle marketing manager Andrew Powell chose a braver approach, and decided to stick with Bedford.
"We bought everything on rubber", says Powell, who bears a striking re semblance to Ian Botham both in appearance and enthusiasm. Greenhous Hereford bought as many Bedford trucks as it could find, including all 126 TMs used by Bedford in its parts distribution fleet, which enabled it to continue trading in commercial vehicles at a reasonable level.
SOLD ALL BUT TWO
In the two years since the announcement by GM, Greenhous Hereford has sold all but two of its stock trucks, and has also sold over 60 of the 126 Bedford TMs, even though these were only acquired last April. "We have even sold five of our TMs back to AWD for them to do prototype work," says Powell.
Newman's decision to continue selling Bedford trucks was a gamble. In the long-term the supply of trucks would inevitably dry-up, but there were indications that some sort of rescue was planned for the Dunstable plant.
"It was always rumoured that a takeover or buyout of Bedford was on the cards," he says. "We were never out of touch because we have a parts and service agreement to continue servicing Bedfords from all three of our dealerships. We had discussed the possibilities with Vi Wright (Bedford's UK sales manager, now with AWD) and so we were delighted when D J B Brown announced he was going to enter into a relaunch at AWD vehicles."
Newman attributes Bedford's failure in the British heavy commercial vehicle market to poor communications between Bedford and its GM parent company. "With Mr Brown, decisions can be taken at AWD on what the market requires at any particular time," he says confidently.
Greenhous Hereford retained all its commercial vehicle staff after the Bedford closure. They were kept busy selling the remaining stock of new and used Bedfords and providing servicing and parts for customers' vehicles. Now, however, the dealership is increasing its workforce in anticipation of new business with AWD. Powell is currently interviewing extra salesmen, necessary because the AWD sales territory will be several times larger than that previously held under Bedford.
"We will cover Cheltenham, Gloucester, parts of Worcestershire, Shropshire and all of mid-Wales," says Powell. "It's one of the largest single areas in the AWD dealer list. Before, we never had Derek Newman of Greenhous Hereford believes his customers will be mostly small fleets. "We're not looking to sell to big fleets because there won't be the volume of vehicles available," he says.
Cheltenham or Gloucester, and in Shropshire we had our own dealer."
Newman hopes to have three 7.5-tonne AWD trucks ready for sale on the day the company launches itself onto the British market, a date deferred by about a month to allow AWD to launch with a sufficient number of trucks. "They want to make a success of it," says Newman. "It would be a mistake to rush it."
Powell has already found customers for the 7.5-tonners that Greenhous Hereford hopes to have with its first allocation on 22 August. There are also customers waiting to purchase the first AWD 13tonner when it is launched (probably in September) and for the AWD TM when it returns to the market next March.
"We're looking forward to selling the complete four-wheel range," says Newman. "It was the most popular truck on four wheels from 7.5 to 17 tonnes — that was where the strengths lay prior to the closure," he adds. Newman is resigned to the fact that initial supplies of AWD trucks may be fairly limited, while the company increases its production. "In 1989, 150 vehicles will be something of what we're looking for in the four-wheel class. That will be about 2-3% of the market. We expect previous Bedford owners will be encouraged to roadtest the AWD vehicles.
"Our strongest sales will be to small private operators with one to 20 vehicles," predicts Newman. "With municipal operators we will need to go out and do a re-marketing job, as municipals put out tenders for quotas a year in advance of their budgets,"
REBUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Newman and Powell will try to rebuild relationships established over many years with local bodybuilders and specialised fleets, such as breweries. "Bedford Commercial Vehicles manufactured a vehicle especially designed for the brewers and soft drinks industry," says Newman. "And, as far as I know, that model is not available from any other manufacturer. Those brewers will be pleased to see a relaunch of that particular model. Many customers had trucks on order when Bedford announced its closure and trucks were still being built a year ago."
Newman adds that, Greenhous is also looking forward to the day when AWD announces the manufacture of coach chassis. "We want to continue our association with companies like Plaxtons, Hestair Duple and Kirkby," he says. "We've got no coach chassis available now, but we were holding a fair amount of stock on the demise of Bedford. We found we were able to market those with no problems whatsoever and prices have remained exceptionally high."
There has been criticism of David Brown that his background is in engineering, which will be of little use for the Herculean marketing effort required when AWD launches itself back onto the British commercial vehicle market. Newman shrugs off these criticisms with disdain. "Ron Hancock (AWD's managing director) is very strong on marketing and so is the team gathered around David Brown. He is not only an excellent engineer but also a shrewd businessman who has been successful in manufacturing and has built up an excellent team to manufacture and market the AWD series."
Newman is also dismissive of claims that the AWD vehicles will be out of date when they appear on the market. "There was a fair amount of development by Bedford with the Perkins Phaser engine and we will be able to kick straight off with it. From 7.5 tonnes to 17 tonnes and, in 1989, with sixand eight-wheel rigids and 38-tonne tractive units, and even 100-tonne tank transporters, prompt decisions will be made by AWD in the market. That gives us every confidence as a marketing outlet."
Newman also understands that Brown has purchased the World Truck Design (developed by Bedford but never launched). He believes Brown is going to judge the temperature of the water and see where he goes from there. "The marketing of a new model from scratch is a terrific investment," says Newman, "but it's early days to judge what's in the pipeline during the next four or five years. I've no doubt that AWD will be looking to improve the model range."
il by Richard Scrase