PROFILE
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BOWELD TRUCK BODIES
Celebrating its strongest year on record
Out of the shadows
Boweld Truck Bodies has long lived in the shadows of larger rivals, but innovation, investment and hard work are paying off
Words: Kevin Swallow
This year is proving to be a watershed one for Boweld Truck Bodies, as investment and innovation look set to make it the strongest year on record for sales and turnover.
Boweld, which builds all its bodies from high-yield steel, took an outdoor stand at Tip-Ex 2011 to show its new Taperlite (launched at the end of 2010). According to director George Boden, this product has helped drive new sales. “In the past 10 months Taperlite has accounted for a 35% increase in turnover. And it has added a new dimension to the industry – a 20-tonne payload,” he says. “The company has moved into new markets, with direct contact from OEMs and markets in the South-East.” The Home Counties, an area the company had rarely dealt with in the past, are now fast becoming a strong area for sales, driven in part by changes in London’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) this month (3 January 2012).
“Operators at the start of the recession in 2008 didn’t change their trucks, and now those trucks are six to seven years old, and they need to change them,” he says. As a Euro-5 chassis tends to be heavier than a Euro-3 chassis, a lightweight body like Taperlite that helps to maintain a competitive payload is invaluable.
Boweld has also designed a new Autolock tailgate clamp. “It is a simple bolt-on apparatus that automatically grabs the tailgate at its midpoint to ensure it’s held tight to the rear post, without the driver having to leave his cab,” Boden explains.
Next year, the company will revamp its Mightylite product. “We have designed Mightylite with a bathtub loor so it reaches up the sides and meets the side panels, making it stronger,” he says.
Boweld has also invested £60,000 in a new paint shop, bringing in-house a job that was previously subcontracted. “Painting is now part of the production line. It saves a fortnight [in lead times], as well as saving on fuel and a driver. It also raises the quality of work.
“We will see a return on investment inside the irst year. Previously we would mount the body onto the chassis, and send it all away to the paint shop, which would mask up the chassis and paint the body. Now the body is painted with four coats [two primer and two top coats], and stoved [heated] to 80°C, making it more durable, and providing a better inish,” he says.
Quality is key, he adds. “If the body has a quality inish we don’t get it back or have to repair it. It takes the same time to build a poor product as a good one,” he says. Boweld provides a 12-month warranty on the product. n
THE COMPANY
Next year Boweld Truck Bodies, started by brothers George and Austen Boden, will celebrate 30 years of designing and manufacturing steel bodies for the earthmoving, aggregate and utilities industries.
Operating out of a 1,580m2 factory near Holywell, Flintshire, the company has developed a sophisticated design process with Danish steel company Ib Andresen
Industri, which laser cuts body components from high-yield steel and ships it to Boweld.
Innovation is also part of the business, with patent designs for the Airclaw remote tailgate locking system, Flexigate multi-way tailgate and its cab guard system ProGuard that goes with the ProCover sheeting system.
Its first product Aggrelite, built in 1987, has been joined by Mucklite and Mightylite, and its most advanced body, Taperlite.
Operators taking on Taperlite include Cornish operators Richard Haddie Haulage and Burcombe Haulage, PP O’Connor based in Irlam, Manchester, and Thomas Bros Excavations (Bedfordshire), which ordered 10 of them through Scania dealer TruckEast.