RO - R plays the numbers game • Rubery Owen-Rockwell reckons that
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it has come up with an interesting solution to the age-old trailer market Danundrum. Namely, how many are made each year in the UK?
The Wrexham-based axle manufacturer can look at the business from one remove, as a maor supplier to virtually all of the country's trailer builders.
It centrally collates the number of axles supplied throughout the industry and has calculated that the total trailer market in Britain stands at 18,500 units a year.
Until the trailer manufacturers agree to an independently audited central production statistics service, like the new commercial vehicle registrations service run by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, manufacturer estimates will have to suffice says RO-R. Its central role, however, means that RO-R can sort the wheat from the chaff more accurately.
In May, RO-R's Llay factory built 6,000 axles, with just over half going overseas, including 2,000 earmarked for the firm's European affiliates.
RO-R's special operations director John Stanford, says: "Taking the average of 2.3 axles per trailer, the 3,000 axles for the domestic market means that 1,520 trailers a month are being manufactured on RO-R axles. Over a year, and assuming a 10-month year, the total is 15,200.
"If the figure is 18,500 trailers, 'then RO-R rep supplies around 80% of the total."