Warrington, UK: Schmitz Cargobull is to sell its 44,000sq metre Harelaw site in the UK. Schmitz mothballed the trailer manufacturing operation in July last year because it has sufficient capacity across the group’s seven other manufacturing facilities in mainland Europe.
Schmitz Cargobull will relocate its UK head office and central parts facility from Harelaw to Warrington where it has a used-trailer sales facility. The move is part of a reorganisation of its UK operations that takes place this summer.
Schmitz builds temperature controlled and dry freight box-van trailers in Vreden, Germany, in a 120,094m2 plant with an annual manufacturing capacity of nearly 15,000 units.
Curtainside trailers for the UK and Ireland are now built in a 295,000sq metre factory in Altenberge, Germany, where Schmitz has been manufacturing trailers since 1950. This site can make up to 47,000 units a year.
Schmitz builds rigid bodies for the UK and Ireland at its 60,400sq metre plant in Panevezys, Lithuania. Bodies are mounted on site or transported to the UK in kit form and assembled at Schmitz Cargobull’s service point and vehicle finishing centre in Doncaster.
The Schmitz Warrington used-trailer sales centre has a three-bay workshop, parts warehouse and on-site parking for 80 trailers. There is spare office space to accommodate the head office team and the existing parts warehouse will serve as the company’s primary UK parts store. From September it will house over £1/2 m of original equipment parts.
Paul Avery, managing director of Schmitz Cargobull in the UK, says: “Warrington is an ideal location. It’s home to a large and well-established Schmitz Cargobull operation already, plus offers the capacity to comfortably accommodate our head office and parts teams.
“Many of the largest trailer fleets in the UK are based within a 150-mile radius of Birmingham, and our new home in Warrington will put us firmly in that geographic area, which is a very positive step,” he says.
• Schmitz Cargobull (UK) is a subsidiary company of the German-owned Schmitz Cargobull Group, one of the biggest manufacturers of semi-trailers in Europe. The group has manufacturing plants in Germany, Spain and Lithuania. Schmitz Cargobull refrigerated units are constructed using the company’s Ferroplast Thermo Technology modular steel-skinned panels.
