A market-leading company has pulled out all the stops to meet an urgent European order.
The name of Ifor Williams Trailers is familiar not only on the roads of Great Britain but also on the Continent where the company has a growing reputation for the quality and range of its products.
Among the firm’s European customers is Belgacom, the Belgian equivalent of BT, which has purchased numerous trailers from the company in recent years.
They recently contacted the company’s main Belgian distributor, Mathieu Kerckhofs, with an order for 18 trailers to carry plant and machinery such as excavators – but they had specific requirements.
Mathieu, whose company Mathieu Kerckhofs Trailers BVBA is in Bree, said the GH range of trailers were designed to transport plant but Belgacom needed a longer ramp than usual and a mesh base.
“I contacted Ifor Williams Trailers in North Wales and, as I expected, was told that there would be no problem. They listen to what the customer wants,” he said.
The specially-adapted trailers were constructed at the company’s Cynwyd factory and an extra effort was made to ensure the final consignment arrived on time.
That is the kind of service which Mathieu has come to expect from the North Wales firm, which is Europe’s largest trailer manufacturer and is approaching the 20th anniversary of working with Mathieu’s company.
Having previously been a milkman and sheep farmer, Mathieu began selling Ifor Williams trailers in November 1991
Mathieu said he first became aware of Ifor Williams Trailers when he came over to Britain to buy a specialist breed of ewe when he was still a sheep farmer.
“I saw them everywhere when I came over to the UK and I started selling them to pay for one I had bought for myself but that side of the business just kept growing and growing and so now it is my main business.
“The name Ifor Williams Trailers is very important to my business because once they have bought one, it is the only trailer they want and so I get a lot of repeat business from it. It is the price quality which people like and the fact they are so stable. They are a very popular trailer.”
This latest order is for one of Mathieu’s most important clients. He said: “Belgacom are our biggest customer in Belgium – two years ago they bought 54 trailers from us. Ifor Williams trailers have a very good reputation in this country,” said Mathieu.
The Belgian contract is the latest example of the versatility of the North Wales-made trailers and of the manufacturers’ ability to adapt them to meet customers’ wishes.
Though most commonly associated with the agricultural industry because of the range of horseboxes and stock-carriers they have proved ideal for many other purposes.
One of Britain’s principal coach operators, Stagecoach, ordered 10 general purpose trailers to carry luggage behind their fleet of new buses, but they had to be shortened by two feet to come within the limit for UK roads.
Andrew Reece-Jones, the Design Engineering Manager at Ifor Williams Trailers,said: “We have always prided ourselves on being responsive to the customers’ needs and the Belgacom order is a case in point.
“They had special requirements both in terms of the specification of the trailers and the short timeframe and we were only to pleased to oblige.”
