Welford goes for a Burton
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The strong nerve of Don Burton is paying off. Orders of Elm are being handled by his recently formed company. Bryan Jarvis reports
THE RECESSION of the past three years has left the Receiver picking up the pieces of many well-known companies, but one, Welford Truck Bodies, which was part of the Bristol Street Group, though at one time decidedly shaky, did not fragment. Its difficulties have led to the emergence of a new company, Don-Bur (bodies and trailers).
Don Burton, who was formerly managing director of Welford, bought the crippled company out and moved the remains to its new four-acre site at Langton near Stoke on Trent. He took with him most of the Welford workforce and has returned to producing high-quality truck and trailer bodies without having to worry about the dominating influence of a parent group.
Don-Bur began with an order from Tibbett and Britten for hanging garment trailers and has since developed a product range that includes bulk tipping, curtain and panel-sided bodies for vehicles and trailers.
It required a strong nerve and a bank loan resembling an overseas telephone number to set up in the early stages but Don believes that his decision to buy out Welford and build his own vehicle bodies has been fully justified.
In its first year of trading, the new company showed a healthy profit and Don fully expects that this will be increased this year. With over Elm worth of work in its order book — enough for the next five months — the indica tions are that the company will achieve its target.
The seemingly rosy outlook, however, does not mean that Don Burton is complacent. The line between success and failure is as thin as today's profit margins so much depends on accurate costing, an efficient workshop and delivering the goods on time.
To keep prices competitive, manufacturers have to keep pace with material costs and Don illustrated this by referring to the Financial Times report of March 29 on the increased list price of aluminium ingots from £810 to E880 per tonne. "This will mean that the cost to us of aluminium will have risen 30 per cent over the last four months."
Any decline in the strength of sterling also affects the price, which illustrates how accurate the quotations must be to remain both competitive and profitable.
Type approval is becoming something of a headache as specifications of components are not always readily available from manufacturers. Alterations to road spring rates, brake systems and load sensing valve settings are not always notified to bodybuilders, so time-consuming searches have to be carried out to ensure that the correct up-to-date specification is available for type approval.
In spite of the odds, Don-Bur's modern plant at Langton stands out against the stark background of a rubble-strewn former colliery site, a backdrop that enhances the appearance of completed truck or trailer bodies awaiting collection.
One of its best-selling lines is the Slide-A-Side body which can be built on rigid vehicles of trailers. For the fatter, body lengths can vary between 3m (10ft) to 12m (40ft).
Its curtainsides are reinforced with steel support tubes at specified intervals, and at eact end of the curtain, solid sliding panels are incorporated to allow the sides to be opened in one smooth operation.
Production of the Slide-A-Side bodies, are currently running at two to three per week, with 15( having been built so far. Durin€ my visit, a customer called with an order worth £100,000 for si) tri-axle flat trailers, two 9m anc two 12m tandem axle Slide-A. Side trailers.
Don-Bur builds its own box and Luton van bodies in rigid and demountable forms ranging from 2.5 to 9m in length and fitted out to the customer's requirements. It also produces a similar range of Palletmaster curtain-sided rigids and trailers, hanging garment vehicles and a comprehensive bulk tipping body series that begins at the light duty 2.5cum tippers and runs to its largest 7 Ocum payload body.
Despite the diverse range al bodies that Don-Bur offers, refurbishing and rebuilding old trailers has been quite a profitable line because operators running on a tight purse string see this as a way of giving their trailer bodies a new lease of life at half the cost of a new one.
This does present difficulties. Don-Bur's 3,700 sqm (40,000sqft) workshop floor is usually taken up with vehicle bodies in varying stages of build and to fit rebuild work into the body lines interrupts the normal workflow which causes unwelcome delay.
Don Burton is forthright wher he says that there are insuffi cient profits being generated tc allow the investment necessary to satisfy the needs of the trans. port or indeed many other in dustries.
One thing is certain. Don-Bui is not only carrying on the Wel. ford traditions but by developing its own designs and building quality products, it is setting high standards in its own name.