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The recession hit construction and container shipping hard two sectors that Lancashire trailer firm Dennison traditionally relied on. Fortunately, diversification has helped it weather the storm as operators and rental companies step tentatively back to market.
Words Images: Kevin Swallow Lancashire trailler manufacturer Dennison has a strong reputation for building kit for construction hauliers and skeletal trailers for container work. Unfortunately, in the past three years, building and shipping have been hit hard by the recession.
MD James Dennison says a surge of orders throughout 2007 allowed the firm to carry over production into 2008. "Then people started cancelling in 2008. Volume-wise, it was OK. we didn't feel the aftermath until 2009." he says The company cut its cloth accordingly. making redundancies and scaling back overheads. "The big thing for us was the fall in the order for skeletals. It is 50% of what we do and it fell away overnight so we had to look at other markets." he says.
"We were very badly hit by the slump in the construction and container industries, [but] luckily we have a very wide product range. and we build a lot of specialist trailers: he adds. One sector that Dennison has succeeded in is exporting trailers for the timber industry Success here, explains Dennison, is due in part to the value of the euro.
"We also produced quite a few machinery carriers as well — low loaders, We built a trailer with a company in Norfolk for poultry carriers with positive steer axles — they (required that wel fit the floor, body and Moffet forklift on the back.
-We are also designing a trailer for a company in Denmark. Because of the legislation allowing longer vehicles in Scandinavia and Denmark, we designed and developed the link trailer; we used our sliding bogie technology — it has a fifth wheel at the back of the bogie," he explains.
In the domestic market. Dennison has launched its own double-deck trailer, although its presence in the product line-up has as much to do with necessity as it does opportunity. "The double-deck trailer is another product we produce: we built the curtainsider, then a pillarless curtainsider, then the next model is a double-decker. "We see it as another string to our bow, we don't see us producing hundreds a year. it is another product we can offer a customer," he says.
"The other thing with the double-deck is that we only produce two models, otherwise it gets very complex. Many of our customers are involved in pallet networks and have perhaps one or two double-deck trailers. We developed it because we had customers who wanted it on their fleet," he adds.
By the end of 2009. Dennison says its core markets were starting to show signs of recovery. "Equipment always wears out, so it does need replacing," he adds.
This brings him to innovation; the firm is concentrating on two new construction-linked products."We are looking at developing a push-out/ejector trailer in a half-pipe trailer for the aggregates market," he says.
Dennison is also looking at expanding its skeletal product offering in mainland Europe. "We have one design for a gooseneck skeletal for Europe to meet the 4m height restriction, and we are also looking at developing our multi-function trailer [it splits in half to offer a short-wheelbase trailed,he says. •