Reefer man turns up the heat
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by Brian Weatherley • Keith Howard is used to chasing the leader in the British refrigerated trailer market. Having previously run York Thermostar's UK reefer sales operation, and then Schmitz's he knows all about competing in a market worth £70m a year.
Howard now heads Lamberet's British operation. He may have moved down a place in the reefer league table but his desire to become number one remains undented.
"When I was with York in 1986 I targeted Lamberet, which was then number two, and we were successful in pushing it back. My objective is to take Lamberet from number three to whatever position it can attain— it's going to be a struggle and it's not going to happen overnight."
Market leader Gray and Adams will take some catching; Howard has plenty of respect for the Fraserburgh-based maker."They may not make a song and dance about their product, but there's no questioning their quality. You can't knock that, or the fact they're very profitable. But I'd like their business."
Lamberet's trailer attack will be based upon its chassisless Cargofrigo reefer and the more traditional Semifrigo body— offered on Lamberet's own lightweight chassis or on other trailers. Both are available at 13.4 and 13.6m and with an internal ceiling of up to 2.6m within the all-important Continental 4m height limit.
Getting a statistical grasp of the UK reefer trailer market has
never been easy—it's compounded by the lack of any national trailer registration. According to Howard the best guestimate for 1993 is around 1,603 units "plus or minus 100. G and A were on top with around 600, Schmitz came second with around 500 and Lamberet was third with 300. The rest was taken up by Chereau, GRP Massey and the others."
Fluctuations
While the market is likely to improve in 1994 it won't see the dramatic fluctuations of last year, believes Howard. "This year it's started up much lower than we all thought it would. During the last part of 1993, starting from June and July, orders were flying in. I think many people breathed a sigh of relief that the recession was ending and slapped some money on the table. But they've suddenly realized it was a blip—and we've dropped down again. I don't believe we'll see that much movement in '94. It will probably finish slightly up—but it all depends on who buys this year," Any reticence hasn't appeared to have hit Lamberet's customers. Howard says trailer sales are 20% up on this time last year and not just to the supermarkets. "Right now we're selling to everybody right across the spectrum from the classic distribution companies to the one-man band."
Despite that jump in trailer sales Howard believes the biggest growth area for Lamberet in 1994 will be in the UK rigid market, and in particular in the light vehicle market up to 7.5 tonnes.
"It's all because of legislation. There's already an indication that people down the weight range are taking things far more seriously. At the recent Meatex/ Foodex show we had a Ford Courier reefer conversion that was bringing in 25 serious enquiries a day. The people who used to chuck food in the back of an old Transit can't do it any more. I'm out to get that 3.5-7.5 tonne sector within the overall rigid market which is worth 4,000-4,500 vehicles a year."
Lamberet is shipping in a range of pre-built reefer boxes to meet the demand. It will either fit them at its Warrington site or sell on to other bodybuilders.
"We'll target the rental companies, the end users and the bodybuilders. There are many small bodybuilders with a niche business with a local truck dealer who can't afford any product development. I can put a topquality body on a truck for
them and at the local bodybuilder's price."
Lamberet Isotherm's UK turnover in 1993 was £9.5m and Howard expects that to increase this year. "We're profitable and we do it with employing only 25 people." This year Lamberet will become more aggressive. "I intend to strengthen the sales force considerably," says Howard. "I believe a product needs to be sold—you only have one right and that's to ask the customer to put your product in front of him."
Having spent many years successfully selling rival products against Lamberet how will Howard persuade his customers to look again at the French product? "When I sold for York and Schmitz I only ever told them about Lamberet's weak points... now I can tell them all the good things."