(^42) July 2019 Truck & Driver
BRITISH TRUCKS
and loss of brand loyalty.
Think of the merger of
Seddon (low-image
brand) with Atkinson (high-image
brand) in 1970. Think of the
Leyland/Daf merger in 1987,
when volumes ended up way
below original projections. Indeed,
poor UK performance was one of
the major contributors to Daf
going into receivership in 1993,
to be bought out by Paccar in
- By the mid-1990s, the only
mainstream British brands left
fighting the cause were Seddon
Atkinson, Foden and ERF.
Seddon Atkinson
Seddon Atkinson initially enjoyed
a new lease of life under Enasa.
Sister Spanish brand Pegaso
was already preparing to launch
an entirely new range, Troner,
sharing Daf’s new Cabtec cab.
This immediately became
available to Seddon Atkinson too,
and the Strato range (1988),
together with older-cabbed 2-11,
3-11 and 4-11 models, kept the
brand buoyant throughout the
late 1980s.
Its reputation in the municipal
sector contributed too; to many
local authorities, Seddon
Atkinson was a main competitor
to Dennis on refuse and waste.
That even resulted in an
innovative ‘central driving
position’ waste cab for optimum
visibility. It never really took off.
Iveco’s purchase of Enasa in
1991 was to herald the slow
death of Seddon Atkinson. In the
mid-’90s, the Strato 2 was
launched with Iveco’s then new
Eurotech cab, but the range
never found favour with target
operators, even those still
favouring British brands. Seddon
Atkinson became a municipal
sub-brand of Iveco, but struggled
to establish itself against the
evergreen Dennis and the
exciting new Mercedes Econic.
To cut costs, production in
Lancashire ended and moved to
Iveco’s Madrid plant in 2005. But
volumes fell below 300 units and,
in 2006, Iveco announced the
end of production altogether.ERF
No British brand fought harder to
face up to the Europeans than
ERF. As other British
manufacturers integrated and
entered partnerships in the
1970s, ERF stayed independent.
It recognised the value of
partnership with another brand,
for sure, having tried to buyAtkinson in 1970, but none of its
efforts had borne fruit. In 1979 it
sold just over 3000 trucks here in
the UK, which, for a small
Cheshire-based manufacturer,
was more than respectable.
But recession was just around
the corner and, by 1981, ERF
volumes had been more than
halved to just 1180. With the best
will in the world, that wasn’t
enough. At the end of 1979, ERF
was building 16 trucks a day. By
the end of 1981, it was producing
just 16 a week – and by the end
of 1983, the factory was on a
two-day week and the workforce
had been slashed to some 600.
The omens weren’t good. But
with enormous goodwill out in
the market, ERF cut costs and
fought back. Acknowledging the
value and market attraction of
product rationalisation, it
launched the CP (or Common
Parts) Series based on a
standardised Cummins-Fuller-
Rockwell driveline.
The market loved it, not least
for its competitive unladen weight
and higher payloads. By 1989,
ERF volumes were back up to
4363, with a best-ever market
share (over six tonnes) of 6.7%.
Tractor operators in particular
took to the CP Series – ERF’s
tractor share peaked at 15.2% in
1989, higher than Scania and
Mercedes-Benz and only a
whisker behind newly-formed
Leyland Daf!
This was followed by a joint
venture with Austria’s Steyr to
use the manufacturer’s more
compact, all-steel cab on ES
18- and 26-tonne models. ERF
was leaner and meaner and, as
a result, the company managed
to work its way through another
recession in the early ’90s.
Indeed, a new EC Series heavy
range in 1993 pushed volumes
and profits back up again,
spurred on by an innovative Fuel
Duel marketing campaign.
But privately-owned ERF was
increasingly becoming a mere
minnow in the European truck
manufacturing world and in 1996,
Peter Foden, family member and
long-term company chairman,
sold out to Canadian brand
Western Star. That alliance didn’t
last long; in 2000, Western Star
was itself bought out by
Freightliner, part of Daimler-
Benz, and the decision was
taken to sell off ERF to MAN.
In March 2000, the deal was
complete and ERF moved to a
new factory, with investment fromWestern Star, in Middlewich. MAN
took up the ERF challenge with
enthusiasm, founded on ERF’s
strong and well-established
dealer network and its undoubted
pedigree in certain sectors of the
market, most notably petroleum
regulation tractors. An early order
for 8000 military vehicles also
buoyed the Middlewich plant in
the early days.
The range was expanded.
The addition of ECX, ECS, ECM
and ECL models and then theECT provided operators with the
choice of either an MAN or a
Cummins power unit.Closure in 2002
But with low volumes and
Cummins slow to respond to new
Euro emissions levels, as well as
the cost of engineering these into
the product, the economics of
keeping Middlewich open were
beginning to fade. The decision
was taken to close the plant in
March 2002, with productionLeyland Daf went through some tough
times in the ’90s until Paccar stepped in