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Moving on up

9th December 2010
Page 48
Page 48, 9th December 2010 — Moving on up
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MAN service provider Steadplan has opened a new truck and bus centre in Rochdale, plugging a gap in the network

Words and Images: Kevin Swallow

Steadplan has officially opened a new truck and bus centre workshop in Rochdale. plugging a gap in the manufacturer's network.

The Clitheroe, Lancashire-based MAN service agent. took over the site in April on a five-year lease from John Leach, the former owner of Leach Distribution, who sold his haulage business to German logistics company Dascher at the same time.

Steadplan's operations director Jeremy McGrath says Leach Distribution ran the five-bay workshop, which was once part of the ERF network, as a service partner to its haulage operation, as well as doing third-party business.

The location is far away enough from Clitheroe to open the door to new business for Steadplan, and fills a gap in MAN's network, with the nearest alternative site its flagship operation in Trafford Park.

The catchment area for Steadplan is east and north Manchester, plus Rochdale, Oldham and east along the M62 towards Halifax and Huddersfield.

"We are ideally located, this site is far enough from Trafford Park —customers don't want to be stuck in traffic travelling from this area to the other side of Manchester," he says Aftermarket director Graham MacMillan says the area around J21 of the M62 will see an influx of new investment into the Kingsway Business Park (which will be finished by the end of 2012), attracting new warehousing and distribution businesses.

More work everyday

"There will be MAN customers moving in as well. This site is getting more work already as people start to realise we are here. Every other day we are getting more work, people phoning and asking what we can do." He points out that two other nearby business parks at Pillsworth and Heywood are also a rich source of potential customers.

Steadplan has established a working relationship with new neighbour Dascher, and non-MAN work and trailer repair and maintenance will also play a vital role in building the business, The site is turning a profit already, points out McGrath.

-Steadplan has been proactive since it has been here: we have had to refurbish the whole site and invested [around] /100,000 in it," he says.

The workshop employs eight people on site, including depot manager Allan White and five technicians working six days a week.There are two breakdown vans and a parts delivery van.The fastest-moving parts are housed on site and additional parts sourced from Clitheroe.

"We will try to mirror what happens in Clitheroe here, so we want to achieve a very high standard very quickly,says MacMillan. •


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