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BODYBUILDING PROFILE
Page 57
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• When GRP Cooltrucks acquired Massey International in October 1986 many in the bodybuilding industry were sceptical about the match.
Fast growing and profitable, GRP was enjoying a £2 million turnover in light refrigerated panel vans and bodies, while £6 million-turnover Massey was losing money in the production of refrigerated bodies for larger vehicles. Had GRP bitten off more than it could chew?
Eighteen months later the answer is an emphatic no. The merged companies now operate profitably as GRP Massey and offer a full range of refrigerated bodies for the commercial vehicle market.
Chairman, owner and founder of GRP Cooltrucks, Don Rastrick says: "We have had no problems in coming across to the higher weights. There was already a mature and established management team at Massey just waiting for a breath of fresh air. We've still got the same management team. The whole thing has worked extremely well from day one — far better than could have been anticipated."
He also says there was a synergy between the two companies, which enabled them to "offer the whole range of refrigerated vehicles to existing customers". Rastrick is proud that the merger involved no redundancies and claims that group turnover has grown 25% since the merger.
"Of course the strength of the market has helped us," he admits. "The market demand for refrigerated vehicles has developed, but no manufacturer exceeds a 15% market share. There is obviously an opportunity for everybody in the market."
In 1986, Rastrick says, GRP Cooltrucks was looking to expand its range but its Leeds premises could only cope with limited growth. The company decided not to build another factory when there is already overcapacity in the market, and looked instead to merge with a bodybuilder which was part of a larger group.
Massey International was such a bodybuilder. Part of Unilever, its sales were falling to a level where the company lost almost £100,000 in 1985.
SPECIALISATION
Rastrick says that GRP Massey is now one of the top ten refrigerated bodybuilders in the country. "We have no worries about specialising in the refrigerated market," he says. "I believe that in the United States there are only three manufacturers of furniture wagons — the day of specialisation is here."
The acquisition of Massey International provided GRP with an entry into the heavy refrigerated sector, which currently accounts for around 400 sales annually. It also gained a refrigerated panel-making company called Unit Panels, based near Massey International in Market Weighton, Yorkshire.
RESTRUCTURING
Since the acquisition of Massey and Unit Panels, Rastrick has restructured the company's operations. The GRP Cooltrucks premises in Pudsey, Leeds, are now entirely dedicated to the production of reefer panel vans. Production manager Ian Urquhart is streamlining the production process in order to increase output.
Around 80% of work at Pudsey involves converting Ford Transit and Mercedes 307D panel vans to refrigerated operation. The Mercedes has proved particularly popular because of its ability to take single pallets between the rear wheel arches. The popularity of these two vans amongst GRP's customers has enabled the company to develop kits of ready-cut parts for the conversion.
As the panel van business grows (currently at 25% a year, to 1000 vehicles) Urquhart and his team are developing further off-the-shelf master cutting kits for other panel vans on the market Some of these parts are made for GRP Cooltrucks by Unit Panels. Another corn