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MAN and ERF brak am on uyac s
Page 9
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• MAN and ERF have put the brakes on buy-back deals for trucks in an attempt to improve profitability and manage used vehicle numbers.
Speaking at a press conference last week, Fred van Putten, the company's executive vicepresident of marketing and sales, said it needed a "dramatic turnaround", and dropping the number of buy-back deals it did with high residual values had helped the company improve profitability.
Dr Jurgen Knorpp, MAN/
ERF's UK CEO, said the decision to limit buy-back deals to a certain level each month had made life more difficult.
"Reducing the number of buy-back deals is like a price increase. We have had to step away from deals because they would leave us with no margin— Or a negative one."
Executives at the company admit the move has lost sales; it withdrew from major fleet deals in the 7.5-tonne market, comprising 500 vehicles.
• More on MAN and ERF on p16.