E by Bryan Jarvis The United Trailers name is to
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live on following a buyout by former Wilcox Group sales director Marcus Layton.
Layton's successful bid to receivers for the assets and goodwill of tipping and blowingvehicle specialist Wisbech Bulk Systems has already secured 26 jobs at the re-established Nene Parade plant in Wisbech. The company will now trade as United Trailers.
The workers were made redundant when United Trailers and two of its subsidiaries, Wisbech Bulk Systems and EM Wilcox. went into receivership with debts of around £6m (CM 9-15 Nov 2000).
Two former United Trailers directors have already bought Wilcox, re-opening the Market Deeping plant and securing another 70 jobs (CM 7-13
With 30 years' experience with tipping, blowing, movingfloor and ejector bodies, Layton is relishing the challenge ahead, saying; "I've kept in touch with many of our former customers and I know that there's a good market out there for our products, especially ones with pneumatic and walking-floor discharge systems."
Layton is getting some financial backing from Dave Nicholl of Bilston-based EuroEjectors, which specialises in steel tipping and ejector trailers. Production has been scaled down but is already under way at the recently enlarged and modernised United Trailers' riverside works.
Layton reports that orders are already coming in, including a rigid tipper body being fitted to a Scanla 8x4 for a Cornish operator. He strikes a note of caution, however, saying it will take some time for production to reach previous levels. "We want to walk before we even think of running," he concludes.
• Weightlifter Bodies of Scunthorpe has bought a majority holding in neighbouring bodybuilders Rouse and Beere, now known as Rouse Bodies.
Managing director Mark Rouse will be continuing with the company and says that he is delighted by the changes, which he sees as a positive move for his Peterborough firm.
With our staff of 14 we're producing 15 aluminium truck and trailer bodies a month," he says, "but we're now looking to expand."