SDC's German sales prize
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• An Irish manufacturer is to set to sell £20m worth of trailers this year by exporting almost half its production into the German market.
SDC Trailers of Toomebridge, near Belfast, County Antrim, has survived a flat UK trailer market and boosted its business by 40% in three years by concentraing on Continental sales through a network of dealers. "We recognised there was a boom in Germany," says Brendan McIlvanna, SDC sales and marketing manager.
The export drive entailed meeting the rigorous standards set by the German Vehicle Inspectorate which are tougher than those which apply in the UK. But it has resulted in German sales of 15 trailers a week out of a production of 35.
SDC's turnover is up from £12.2m in 1989 to a predicted £20m this I year, which should put profits over the £500,000 mark. The workforce has grown from 60 to 140 and to cater for the demand for 'jumbo' trailers the
company has developed the 100m2 Megatrailer.
According to McIlvanna, the UK trailer market has slumped from 18,000 units in 1986 to an expected 6,000 this year, but SDC aims to target the UK market when the recession lifts. "There will not be many good secondhand trailers around, so there will be a scramble for new stuff," predicts John Gilmour, manager of SDC's Glasgow operation. The company has a second mainland outlet at Widnes.
SDC was founded in 1982 by managing director Seamus McCloy, a former Crane Fruehauf production worker. Now McIvanna says that it holds third place in the UK trailer market behind Crane Fruehauf and Craven Tasker. He believes the company can take 20% of the market by winning over its rivals' customers.