14 minute read
Wilcox Acquired
WILCOX ACQUIRED BY TVS GROUP
Renowned bodybuilder changes hands but winning management team stays
will be a landmark year for the Wilcox Group, the manufacturer of bulk rigid bodies and trailers and importer of mixer bodies. It’s just over 20 years since Vito Ronzano and Chris Bartlett ended several years of uncertainty for the company when it bought the name and company assets at the Wilcox Market Deeping site near Peterborough. Ronzano and Bartlett were able to build on the Wilcox reputation for building quality products and the company has thrived and expanded since. Wilcox now employs 100 full-time staff. The company has established considerable expertise in building aluminium and steel bodywork for the aggregates, asphalt and construction markets and is also the sole UK agent for CIFA concrete mixers. CIFA was established in Italy almost a century ago and is now under Chinese ownership.
2021 Within recent weeks, Wilcox announced that it had been sold to the Total Vehicle Solutions (TVS) Group, based in nearby Wisbech. The acquisition of Wilcox is the first for the TVS Group since its formation in 2019 from SB Components, Priden Engineering and McPhee Mixers. Vito Ronzano and Chris Bartlett will continue to lead the company under its new ownership. “The acquisition strengthens and adds to the Group’s market position in the UK and Europe, creating increased cross-selling opportunities and the ability to share facilities, broadening reach, resource and technical expertise”, Area Sales Manager, Jamie Boyce, told DAF Driver.
For DAF operators, Wilcox and its associated companies are an established part of the DAF Ready to Go ready-bodied truck range. The Ready to Tip tipper range, based on the DAF CF 450 8x4 construction chassis offers the option of Wilcox steel or aluminium tipper bodywork.
WILCOX ACQUIRED BY TVS GROUP
Words: John Kendall Photographs: Wilcox
Similarly, the Ready to Mix ready-bodied mixer range includes McPhee or CIFA mixer bodywork. As mentioned earlier, Wilcox is the sole UK agent for CIFA mixers. Now since the TVS acquisition, Wilcox is part of the same company that supplies McPhee mixers too. Ready to Mix and Ready to Tip bodies are both mounted on the same DAF CF 8x4 Construction chassis, powered by the PACCAR 450hp MX-11 10.8-litre in-line six-cylinder engine. Tipper and mixer are both equipped with the TraXon 12-speed automated transmission.
Rear axles are identical too using the DAF SR1132T double-drive rear bogie, mounted on steel parabolic suspension. Specification includes air conditioning and truckphone. The Wilcox tipper body for Ready to Tip comes with painted finish and a sheeting system.
“Lead times on bodies and chassis are currently eight to 10 months”, says Boyce, “So a haulier in urgent need of a vehicle can take advantage of the stock program. DAF also offers some excellent deals with repair and maintenance to support the deals.”
Those long lead times are being experienced across the truck manufacturing sector, for a variety of reasons. One is the supply shortage of electronic components which is affecting every sector of motor manufacturing from cars to vans, trucks and buses.
“Last year saw a reduction in new orders of around 40 per cent due to Covid and Brexit. This year the order book is full, but now the effects of Covid are showing within the supply chain”, explains Boyce.
“Chassis manufacturers are struggling to get electrical components, which are produced in Asia where production is down due to Covid related issues. This has caused us weeks without chassis deliveries.
“We are also struggling to get hauliers to bring the raw materials into the UK. This is partly due to the additional paperwork and costs generated by Brexit but also due to Covid restrictions in the UK and the possibility of not getting out of the UK if drivers have a positive test.”
These are all issues that will take time to resolve, but the signs are good. The economy seems to be recovering more quickly than forecast, while the vaccination programme is having a positive impact on Covid-19 infections even though the Delta variant is currently causing problems.
Wilcox is seeing a pattern among DAF Ready to Go customers regarding bodywork choices. “The most common bodies are mixers and steel tipper bodies”, reckons Boyce, “This is generally down to new contracts starting at short notice, where the first vehicles in are the muckaway bodies to remove muck and then the mixers to prepare the ground.”
The Wilcox range is extensive, including conventional and monocoque tipping bodies for rigid chassis and trailers including insulated and dropside bodywork, as well as bulk blower bodies. The company also produces walking floor trailers as an alternative to tipping bodies. Wilcox maintains an extensive stock of parts, either produced in-house or sourced from trusted suppliers.
DDM
Wilcox can trace its origins back to 1947, with the formation of E.M. Wilcox Ltd by Mrs Wilcox and her sons Ray and Geoff. The company was based at Acland Street, Peterborough, a site that was demolished to make way for the Queensgate Shopping Centre. The company moved to its current Market Deeping site in 1989.
The company changed hands for the first time in 1972 when it was acquired by the Hypromel Group. The company expanded in the 1980s, acquiring Seadyke, CMC Bodies, Bulkerpart, Dunspencer, Pneubulk and Teamport Trailers.
The company changed hands again in 1989 and the period up to 2000 saw the company go into receivership on two occasions, before being purchased by Vito Ronzano and Chris Bartlett, who have successfully re-established the Wilcox name.
The company won a Design Council Award, given for the outstanding design of its foldin-side tipper body in 1978. It was the first all-welded aluminium alloy tipper body with fold-in-sides to be produced in the UK. Commercial Motor explained that, “The extension panels fold flat to the side before they in turn are folded to lie flat on the floor to convert the body from bulk to flat.
A few years later Wilcox supplied the first walking floor body for a rigid chassis in the UK, fitted to a Foden eight-wheeler in 1985 for Howard Waste of Edmonton in north London. Commercial Motor reported that, “The internal length of the body on Howard Waste’s Foden is 8.7m (28ft 6in), about 1.2m (4ft) more than would have been possible with a tipping mechanism. Capacity of the body is 52m3 (68 cu yd).”
TRUCK NAMING IN THE
MEMORY OF FUSILIER LEE RIGBY
Veterans into Logistics names DAF truck in memory of Fusilier Lee Rigby
Not for profit HGV training organisation, Veterans into Logistics, has named its DAF CF85 training vehicle in memory of Fusilier Lee Rigby, in a moving tribute at Rochdale Cricket Club, Greater Manchester. Guests at yesterday’s COVID-safe event included the family of Lee Rigby, Armed Forces Lead for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Chris Thomas, Member of Parliament for Heywood and Middleton, Chris Clarkson, and Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. Veterans into Logistics was established last year with the aim of reducing unemployment amongst military veterans. The organisation, which is currently applying for charity status, provides much-needed skills, opportunities, and personal support to veterans struggling to cope with reintegration into civilian life. “I’ve really enjoyed working with the team from Veterans into Logistics,” said MP for Heywood and Middleton, Chris Clarkson, “Our armed forces are especially close to my heart, so when Darren [Wright] got in touch about the work he and the team were doing to support service leavers into the logistics sector, I was keen to find out more. “Right now,” he said, “the country is facing a serious shortage of qualified heavy-goods drivers and so the work that VIL is doing is especially important for our national recovery from coronavirus. Together I hope we can provide many more opportunities for our veterans in this critically important and highly rewarding sector.”
Darren Wright, Founder and Director of Veterans into Logistics, said, “We’re honoured to have named our training vehicle in Lee’s memory and to welcome his mother Lyn Rigby and close family to the tribute on the anniversary of his funeral. Lee’s name,” he said, “will take pride of place on our DAF CF, which plays a key role in helping to provide a new career to the UK’s military veterans.” In addition to one-to-one mentoring, the Veterans into Logistics team delivers the necessary training to allow ex-military personnel to gain their HGV driving licence. Lessons are delivered using the organisation’s dedicated DAF LF and CF trucks. Once qualified, the in-house recruitment team helps new drivers to find their first role within the transport and logistics industry. Wright added, “So many service leavers who leave the armed forces without a trade or transferable skill struggle to find meaningful employment. Having employment is a major factor in a person’s mental health, as employment gives you structure, stability and financial security which is needed to get by in life. “Our mission,” he said, “is to reduce unemployment within the veteran’s community and all our veterans to earn a sustainable living.”
DAF CF85 training vehicle named in honour of Fusilier Lee Rigby, killed in London in 2013
WEATHERING
THE STORM An interview with Steve Barfoot, Managing Director PACCAR Financial Plc
Banks and finance houses have an, often well-deserved, reputation for handing businesses an umbrella when the sun is shining, then taking it away when it starts to rain. That is not, never has been, and never will be the approach taken by PACCAR Financial says UK Managing Director, Steve Barfoot.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Britain this year as DAF Trucks’ inhouse finance company, it funds one in three of the new trucks sold by the manufacturer’s dealers.
The flexible and supportive approach the firm takes to its clients was writ large last year at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We had a tsunami of requests for payment holidays between April and June and into early July,” Barfoot recalls. “Over 600 customers approached us for help and over 5,000 contracts had to be rewritten.”
Most of the holidays were for three months, with a few operators asking for six months. All the requests were granted, and PACCAR Financial experienced zero business failures or contract losses says Barfoot.
There is no denying that PACCAR Financial faces stiff competition from banks and leasing companies, not to mention the willingness of some companies to pay cash for their vehicles. This ensures it prices its products competitively, but pricing is not the only weapon in its arsenal.
Its in-depth specialist knowledge of the road transport industry, and of DAFs in particular, gives it a major advantage over other sources of funding says Barfoot.
“All we do is fund DAFs, and we’ve done so for the past two decades,” he observes. “We don’t get involved in funding machinery, buildings, cars or anything else, and we’ve never retreated from the truck market.”
Its understanding of the sector’s needs has prompted it to offer plans with monthly payments that vary in line with a client’s seasonal pattern of business; higher when the operator is busy, and lower during quieter times of the year. “A bank may not offer that facility,” he remarks.
“We can also bundle our plans together with DAF repair and maintenance agreements so that customers have just one regular payment going out of their bank account,” he says. “Other financial institutions aren’t able to do that.”
As things stand, the majority of PACCAR Financial’s clients are opting for HP deals, which mean the truck will be theirs once all the payments have been made. “They’re confident about owning the asset, and about their ability
to get a piece of the disposal action if they need to sell it,” Barfoot comments.
“However we can also put together operating leases, and again that’s something not all institutions can offer.”
PACCAR Financial can offer contract purchase - in effect HP with low monthly instalments and a balloon payment at the end of the agreement - and finance leases too.
“We fund around 15% of the used DAFs retailed through the dealer network and we could do with funding more,” he says.
This will involve getting to grips with the differences between the new and used markets so far as finance is concerned. “They’re completely different,” he remarks.
With the former, it can take several months for the vehicle to be specified, ordered, built and delivered, so there is more time to consider payment options. With the latter, the truck is already sitting on the dealer’s forecourt; and the prospective purchaser wants a decision on finance made quickly so it can be acquired and put to work as soon as possible.
PACCAR Financial is already starting to get to grips with the challenges inherent in funding new electric trucks; DAF has developed battery-powered versions of LF and CF. “Residual values will need careful evaluation,” Barfoot says. In the meantime diesels dominate, and PACCAR Financial’s success in the sector is a reflection of the strong partnership it has built up with all the company’s dealers since 2001. They include Chassis Cab, which operates four sites across East Anglia with over 170 employees.
It won PACCAR Financial Europe’s International Dealer of the Year Award in 2020, a year which saw 53% of the trucks it sold supplied subject to PACCAR agreements.
“It’s been especially beneficial to work with PACCAR Financial at a local level,” says Chassis Cab Managing Director, Robert Baxter. “Together we devised a fantastic solution, specifically for container hauliers based in and around the port of Felixstowe.
“They’re very focused on fixed monthly payments for their tractor units so we came up with a complete package to suit them - the Felixstowe Deal - based on credit lines for specific customers.
“It’s proved a huge success,” he adds. “Our ambitious target for its first year in 2019 was to supply 50 trucks under this agreement; and we delivered 70.
“PACCAR Financial and ourselves are so well aligned,” he concludes. “We’ve got the same goal; to sell the right products at the right price for our customers.”
3pm - Wednesday 9th June 2021
By Richard Warner
This is the date that DAF Trucks changed the look of road transport in the 21st century and the way everything we rely on is delivered!
This is the date that the New Generation DAF Truck range was launched.
The new New Generation DAF Merchandise range was launched shortly after the unveiling of the new truck range. Within the new range of merchandise are three new scale models. Supplied by renowned Dutch scale model manufacturers WSI.
The XF, XG & XG+ have all been captured in detailed miniature. Everything is there, from the embossed DAF logo on the rear wall of the cab, to the aero parts & chrome detailing around the window.
Look closely inside the cab and the monitors for the camera system and the ladder for the bunk can be seen. The attention to detail is extraordinary!
The colour – Tuscan Yellow matches the real-life version. XF models utilise the traditional door mirrors, the XG & XG+ wear the new DAF Direct Vision camera system.
All the models feature the same tri-axle trailer with alloy wheels. They also all feature the same ‘headline’ banner ‘Start the Future’. The new range is available in the smaller 1/87 or larger 1/50 scale.
DAF has been quick off the mark with this range of models. The eagerness to own a scaled down version of the real truck seems to be a popular one! It’s rare to see a scale model of a new truck launched at almost the same time as its real-life counterpart, as lots of collectors already have their New Generation DAF added to their collections.
The ‘Future has started’ and in scale model terms a great looking addition to any collection!
The brand new range of New Generation DAF scale models & Merchandise can be viewed by visiting www.dafshop.com. All items can be ordered now from your local DAF Trucks Dealer.
