SDC marks 10,000th trailer milestone at new production facility

SDC Trailers, the UK and Ireland’s leading semi-trailer producer, recently marked a manufacturing milestone when its 10,000th trailer came off their new production line in Toomebridge, three years after the facility became operational.

The semi-automated line was commissioned in August 2018 as part of a £7 million expansion to SDC’s existing Northern Ireland base, which would meet additional demand for their robust and reliable trailer range. The milestone Boxvan trailer was produced for hire and leasing specialist TIP Trailers Services and is one of over 150,000 manufactured by SDC since the company was established in 1978. Continued investment has allowed SDC to meet the demand for locally produced trailers at their four production sites in Toomebridge, Antrim and Mansfield. Their 600,000sq ft facilities incorporate some of Europe’s most advanced trailer production methods, supporting a range of sizes, specific product variances, and the scalability to handle higher production volumes when required. SDC’s Group President Paul Bratton said: “I am proud to be able to announce that we have reached such a fantastic milestone three years after this facility was opened. While technology, innovation and investment have helped us to meet customer demand, it is our loyal, long-serving staff members who have truly shaped the company’s success and the proven reliability of our trailers. “I would like to thank every member of our team who worked to achieve this 10,000th trailer milestone, they do an incredible job ensuring every trailer engineered is designed and finished to our exacting quality standards.”

Commitment

SDC’s Toomebridge Production Manager, Eoin McErlean, who has been with the company for 35 years, added: “This milestone is testament to SDC’s commitment to producing the leading trailer solutions in the industry and it could not have happened without our production, engineering and R&D teams who have served the leading haulage and logistics providers over the last 43 years. “At SDC we are committed to developing trailer solutions that further advance safety and operational efficiency, and lean manufacturing is central to this. The new facility in Toomebridge has allowed us to enhance the efficiency of our processes and remain competitive, delivering quality products to customers with minimum lead time.” Building on four generations of trailer building expertise, SDC delivers customer-centred engineering and industry-first solutions. Over their long manufacturing history, the company has developed a solution for almost every transport application spanning from Curtainsiders and Boxvans, to Platform, Skeletal, Machine Carrier and Drawbar trailers, with a variety of options available to meet the customer’s needs. While SDC is renowned for its leading trailer portfolio, the company places significant emphasis on lifecycle customer support through their dedicated after-sales teams who provide spare parts, fleet graphics, breakdown assistance, trailer repair, refurbishment, modification, and second-hand sales. The manufacturer has seen a sharp increase in demand throughout 2021, with one new SDC trailer going into production every 16 minutes.

TRANS-BRIDGE FREIGHT SERVICES: PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE AFTER SUCCESSFULLY COPING WITH THE CHALLENGES OF THE PAST

Like many transport operators, Trans-Bridge Freight Services has had to weather the storm of the past 18 months, with both Brexit and the Covid-19 global pandemic disrupting everyday life, but the company, with depots in Antrim, Dublin and Manchester, is looking to the future with confidence, and with good reason.

As Export & Freight’s David Stokes has been finding out from the company’s Managing Director Brian Anderton, it has plans in place to extend its facilities in Antrim and to add to its already impressive fleet of temperaturecontrolled trucks and trailers to meet increasing customer demand. For the past 30 years, TransBridge Freight has operated an Overnight Groupage service from its consolidation depot in Manchester across to Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. “Service has always been the key characteristic of our notoriety with customers and our peers,” says Brian. “We service a wide range of business sectors and have built an impressive portfolio of valued customers.” The acquisition of its flag ship depot in Antrim in 2015 boosted not only the company’s profile in Northern Ireland but also its capacity to expand into specialist markets, particularly the temperature-controlled healthcare and pharmaceutical sector.

We began our interview with Brian by first asking, how did the Covid -19 Pandemic impact on your business and what did you in terms of contingency?

I guess like most businesses and individuals we didn’t envisage the enormity of the situation until it was right upon us. When Boris made the TV address on the 23rd of March 2020 effectively pacing the country in full lock down, we had to quickly configure our contingencies, both in Manchester and Antrim. Apart from the obvious components of acquiring PPE and sanitisation equipment (a challenge in itself) we identified the colleagues that we could reposition away from the office whilst still contributing to the operation of the business. The team members that couldn’t work from home from a practical perspective were given sufficient space to social distance and follow the guidelines to protect each other. Fortunately, our broad spread of commercial markets, meant that we didn’t experience a complete shut down of traffic flow through our network. Whilst we saw a steep downturn in the few months in the construction, manufacturing and retail sectors, our pharmaceutical and healthcare clients had never been busier. Ultimately, the people of Northern Ireland required a continuous flow of healthcare products, medicines, and critical care supplies and Trans-Bridge never missed a beat throughout the darkest times of the pandemic. I am very proud of our team on both sides of the Irish Sea for their unwavering commitment throughout. In terms of the health of employees and service providers, apart from sporadic individual cases of Covid-19, we consider ourselves extremely blessed that we didn’t suffer any serious cases or worse. Self- Isolation was probably the hardest and most unpredictable component of the fight against the disease, but again the team have pulled together, and we have come through the other side. I agree with our medical experts in high places in as much that Covid-19 will most likely be a disease that we must learn to live with and manage, as we do with Influenza. Hopefully Trans-Bridge will continue to play a crucial role in delivering the preventative medicines to keep the people of Northern Ireland safe and well.

How has Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol changed how your business operates?

If there was ever a definition of “The Perfect Storm” the UK’s relentless drive to exit from the EU during a global pandemic,

must be right up there. We had obviously been preparing for Brexit for most of 2020, however, as I am sure the common census on both sides of the Brexit debate would agree, the uncertainty and continual postponements and expired deadlines, made any realistic preparation impossible. The supply chain model changes from GB to ROI were clearly cut, in as much that there would be Customs Formalities on entry into ROI and visa versa irrespective of whether a Trade Deal was reached or not. We worked intensively with our customers to prepare them for what would be required in terms of commercial data for Customs. It was very quickly apparent that the businesses and organisations in GB that historically didn’t trade outside of the EU had no or little idea of what was to come. Terminology such as Inco Terms, Commodity Codes, EORI numbers Country of Origin were completely alien to a lot of customers, particularly for those fortunate enough to be too young to remember how difficult it was pre the Common Market. We supported all our clients through the latter part of 2020, even those who came very late to the party, and with the support of Customs Clearance partner EORI UK created a variety of platforms that customers could supply electronically, the necessary data to us, quickly and easily, to enable us to create Export and Import formalities. The Northern Ireland Protocol impact didn’t really hit home with us until we started to see the format of the Trader Support Scheme portal late in Q4 2020. Our first challenge was to encourage all of consignors and consignees that move freight between GB and Northern Ireland to register with the TSS and obtain their XI EORI number. Once again, the importance of Inco Terms came to the fore, which for what is essentially an internal UK transaction caused unimaginable confusion. Very quickly the realisation, on both sides of the Irish Sea, that the “Importer of Record” would ultimately be responsible for a Customs Declaration at a point in time after the delivery was complete, made Inco Terms a real hot potato. We invested heavily in IT once again to make the process for NI Export Data to be communicated very quickly and easily and worked closely with Fujitsu at the TSS to integrate into their Portal. The outcome has been very positive and has made the movement of consignments through our GB / NI network very smooth. We are now also offering a service to our clients to complete the final stage of the TSS process which is the Supplementary Declaration. The big cloud on the horizon is the future of the Protocol and how that will affect trade between GB and Northern Ireland. In its current form N. Ireland’s requirement to align with EU Regulatory framework will impact massively on the supply from GB of food stuffs, medicines, industrial products that require EU Certification and many other areas of day-to-day products. Hopefully common sense will prevail, and a sensible outcome will be achieved to satisfy all parties, but most importantly to protect the way of life of all Northern Ireland’s people.

How does the future look for Trans-Bridge Freight Services Ltd?

We have always been very positive about, and receptive to, change and Brexit is no different. Yes, it has placed obstacles in our path, but we have been pro-active in engaging with Politicians and N.I Protocol architects to try and play an active role in how those challenges are overcome. We see Northern Ireland as probably our biggest growth market, especially in the pharmaceutical sector and we are actively investing in Temperature Controlled Vehicles and Trailers to pre-empt the requirements of our customers. We also have plans in motion to extend our Temperature Controlled storage facilities in Antrim to meet the demands of our pharmaceutical clients, so all in all, very exciting times.