After several years of “testing” the market, Titan Trailers has decided to jump in across the pond. The Canadian manufacturer will open an assembly plant in Middlesbrough, in northeast England, where it will build its Titan Thinwall trailer for the British and, potentially, the rest of the European trucking market.
“This facility will put us in a much better position to meet customer demand for our trailers,” Mike Kloepfer, president, said. “Their support showed us that Titan’s premium quality and price/value equation are viable in this market. By bringing our final assembly to Britain means we will be able to deliver more efficiently and remain competitive in the long term.”
Currently, the company has been shipping EU-standard components for the Thinwall from Europe, assembling the trailers in Canada and then shipping the finished product back. This new facility will allow the hollow-core, smooth-wall trailers to be built entirely overseas.
“To meet our company’s objectives, it is our intent to expand the existing Colledge Trailers Teesside facility to include a state-of-the-art trailer assembly,” said Kloepfer. “This area is very well founded in industrial manufacturing, and there is an abundance of capable trade people to assemble Titan trailers to the exact specification as the Canadian-built trailer. The town’s seaport access is vital to getting our materials into the UK efficiently, and it will become more important as we begin expanding our sales effort into Europe.”
The Thinwall trailer is built with an extruded aluminum body and offers up to a 15% reduction in fuel consumption, the company said. In addition, the smooth-wall interior increases the trailer’s cubic capacity by 10% compared to using post-and-panel construction.
The Thinwall trailers are typically used to haul bulk commodities such as municipal waste, farm commodities, scrap metals and forestry products.
Kleopfer said the first English-built trailers should appear in October.
