. . . It looks an ideal marriage by THE
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CF-BODEN merger appears to make good sense in almost every way. Crane Fruehauf has been expanding at a great rate for nearly five years and has suffered some unfortunate blows to its managerial strength, notably in the death of the sales manager, and the technical director's retirement through ill-health. And since Guy Crane's own health forced him to give up the position, there has been no managing director.
"Bill" Boden brings his combination of H. BRIAN COTTEE Yorkshire-bred engineering flair and Lancashire-nurtured business acumen to the new post. In five years he pushed Boden Trailers' pre-tax profit from £5,622 to over £50,000 and by 1965-6 to £340,000.
Building the new factory and tooling for the MK. 3 range halved this profit last year, but sales have been very good.
Combining with CF, which is strongly placed in the van and container market, has resolved Mr. Boden's problem of whether to go into containers, while CF will welcome the production potential at Royton.
"Bill" Boden told me last week that he had been genuinely unable to find a flaw in the merging of the companies—even the apparently overlapping sales had, when analysed, proved to be complementary.