(^44) July 2019 Truck & Driver
BRITISH TRUCKS
Foden stayed profitable.
Specialisation became
its product platform,
mirroring the traditional US-
based Paccar approach. But it
struggled for appeal in a market
that was by now attuned to the
‘standardised product’ European
approach of Daf, Volvo, Scania
and Mercedes-Benz.
Not only that, the market was
changing. Trucks were becoming
commodities, assets acquired
simply to do a job. Purchasing
decisions were being made more
by accountants, less and less by
fleet engineers. ‘Specialisation’
was something that operators
were reluctant to pay for – and
brand loyalty was gradually
fading in importance.
Against this background,
Paccar’s purchase of Daf out of
receivership in 1996 offered
Foden a lifeline. The brand
urgently needed a new cab. Its
home-built 4000 and 3000 cabs
were both well past their sell-by
date and Daf’s recently-launched
2.3-metre-wide cab (as on 85, 75)
was an ideal, low-cost alternative.
And the cab fitted easily over
Foden’s preferred Cummins and
CAT engine options.
Alpha arrives
Cue Foden’s new Alpha 3000
range. Initially marketed under an
‘Advanced Function Concept’
platform, Alpha was designed to
offer the optimal heavy truck
range (18 tonnes-plus) for
specific applications. Its function
was the focus and Alpha was
available in two-, three- and
four-axle rigid and two- and
three-axle tractor format, from
18 to 44 tonnes.
Critically, however, Alpha was
to be as standardised as
possible, so what you bought
was a standard specification
designed specifically around
what you do, with an Alpha cab,
a Cummins engine, a Fuller
gearbox and a Rockwell rear
axle. That way, Foden could
amalgamate its long-cherished
specialised approach with the
standardised approach adopted
by European manufacturers and
preferred by operators.
And it worked. Foden’s market
share (over six tonnes) rose from
1.6% in 1996 to 1.9% by 2000.
But costs were still too high.
Alpha had boosted Foden’s UK
volumes to 1000 annually, but
the cost of keeping a factory
open to produce such low
numbers no longer made
economic sense. Also, in 1998,
Paccar had acquired Leyland
Trucks, Daf’s Leyland-based
manufacturing plant – less than
20 years old and one of the most
efficient in Europe – and it was
less than 50 miles up the road.
The decision was inevitable.
Foden’s Sandbach plant closed
in 2000, with all Foden
manufacturing transferred to
Leyland. Unit production costs
went down. Economies of scale
improved. And profits recovered.
But still the volumes weren’t
coming, despite the popularity of
Alpha and a well-received
second-generation Alpha. That
enthusiasm simply wasn’t turning
into registrations and, by 2005,
Foden volumes had once again
dwindled to just 700.
Emissions
Other demands were piling up at
the door too: Euro 4 emissions
levels had to be met from 2006,
with Euro 5 due in 2009 and
Euro 6 in 2013. Meeting these
was going to cost money –
money that Alpha was struggling
to generate. At the same time,
Daf volumes were rocketing –
more than 9500 CF and XF
registrations in 2005 alone.
Again, the decision was
inevitable. In 2005, Paccar
management announced that
Foden production was to cease
in 2006 ‘to free production
capacity at Leyland for increased
volumes of Daf trucks’.
The last Alpha rolled off the
line in June 2006, ending 150
years of Foden manufacturing
and retiring the brand. It was a
particularly tough decision for
Paccar chairman Mark Piggott,
who ran Foden in his earlier days
with Paccar and had a huge
sentimentality for the brand and
British truck manufacturing.
But sentiment doesn’t pay the
bills – and the sad fact is that no
truck brand is viable on just 700
unit sales per annum.
Foden’s Falcon?
One legendary, often-asked
question is why there was never
a Foden version of Daf’s popular
95, subsequently XF cab. Some
say it could have saved Foden.
So why not? Wasn’t there
enough demand? Or did Daf see
it as too much competition?
Foden’s core business was
construction. That’s where its
greatest customer loyalties lay
and where its rugged, specialist
approach had always found
greatest success.
Eight-wheelers was Foden’s
forte, not tractors – and while the
Alpha model had undoubtedly
strengthened the company’s fleet
tractor profile, few had invested
heavily in the brand.
Eight-wheelers used lower,
narrower, two-step-entry cabs.
The volume sellers – Scania’s
P-cab, Volvo’s FM and Daf’s CF
- all had narrow cabs. Bigger,
wider cabs were not volume
sellers on eight-wheelers – few
8x4s of the day had (or needed)
sleeper cabs; bigger, wider cabs
were more susceptible to
damage on site operations; and
they were more expensive to buy
and to produce. And Foden sold
loads of eight-wheelers...
Fleet tractors also used
narrower 2.3m-wide cabs.
Bigger, 2.5m cabs were the focus
for long-haul tractor operations.
Foden sold few long-haul
tractors, so didn’t immediately
need a bigger cab. How many
would it have sold when it was
already struggling to sell enough
narrow-cabbed Alpha tractors?
It simply couldn’t justify the
development and homologation
costs of a Foden ‘XF cab’ with its
own engine, chassis,
transmission and axles.
And it really is as simple as
that. For sure, the project was
looked at; a styling exercise was
rumoured to have been done and
research was carried out among
existing Foden operators of older
4000 Series and newer Alphas to
gauge demand.
But the research results
confirmed everyone’s
expectations. Demand for an
XF-cabbed Foden would have
been lukewarm at best and
unlikely to deliver any real
profitability. It would never have
paid for itself.
In 1989 ERF sold more tractor units than Scania and
Mercedes-Benz! EC was a big success in the ’90s too