Seddon and Deutz link up to produce Seddon-Deutz vehicles
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SEDDON-DEUTZ LTD. is the title of a company now in the process of formation, the object of which will be to produce a range of vehicles under that name in Britain.
The authorized capital will be £100,000 and the working capital will be subscribed jointly by Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz AG and Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd. Mr. H. Redmond, Seddon chairman and managing director told COMMERCIAL MOTOR that this move will not affect in any way present production or sales of either of the sponsoring companies who will continue to operate on the same basis as previously.
Factories of Seddon and Seddon-Deutz will be kept separate. The new organization has leased premises at Bentley Avenue, Stake Hill Industrial Estate, Middleton, Lancs where over 30,000 sq. ft. are at present available. This establishment will become the Seddon-Deutz assembly centre and stores. Here a full complement of Magirus-Deutz components will be held to service vehicles already in operation in Britain.
Magirus-Deutz vehicles will still be imported by the German company.
In the course of the next two or three weeks vehicles will start to flow through the new factory. At the outset the staff will be small but Mr. Redmond said it could rise to 75-100 in the course of the year.
The first Seddon-Deutz will be a 14/16ton-gross vehicle and corresponding trac
five unit for train weights up to about 26 tons.
The Deutz engine is likely to be a basic part of the new vehicle but it is probable that the specification will assume an increasingly British content. It is visualized that the formation of the new company will make available to both manufacturers' distributor networks a wider range of models and will improve overseas outlets.
A new subsidiary company known as Seddon Motors Ltd. has been formed by Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd., and this new body will be responsible for Seddon chassis production at Oldham. Mr. F. J. Galbraith, previously works manager of Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd., has been appointed to the board of Seddon Motors Ltd. as director responsible for spares and service.
Mr. D. F. Palliser, general manager of Pennine Coachcraft Ltd., has been appointed to the board of that company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd. He now becomes director and general manager: Consequent upon the various changes Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd. will assume the role of a holding company.