You Can Only Step Into The Same River Once - unless you manufacture in the UK
A once famous philosopher once noted: You Can Only Step Into The Same River Once - unless you manufacture in the UK.
Not certain he said: 'unless you manufacture tipping trailers in the UK'. So the great wheel turns and Game of Thrones keeps marching on. It is rumoured that Elaighmore - a serial investor in companies in the UK have divested themselves at last of Wilcox and Priden. This was logical as TVS have been rumoured to be looking for a buyer. And the buyers appear to be this week: 1 of the shareholders of Elaighmore - which is a vote of confidence I guess. Another is former Wilcox owner Chris Bartlett. So very well done to you both. Priden have consolidated their land holding into somewhere else. One of the more wacky rumours circulating is that Wilcox who when they come to manufacturing tipping trailers have long purchased third party chassis from the likes of Wheelbase; AHP, Brookside, Crane, Freijat, Schmitz, Montracon, Tirsan and SDC are also adding Fruehauf to that auspicious group. Now that is full circle as some of the more long in the tooth will have seen Wilcox back in the 1990s when owned by Fruehauf with the Crane Wilcox tipping trailer. At the time for me this was the best combo built - absolutely first class: huge stepframe chassis and bullet proof monocoque body. There are probably some of them still working today. 40 years on stepping back into the same river..... how will that go. But still only a rumour.
On that matter Weightlifter have also been reported as purchasing again from third party chassis suppliers...... perhaps a different river here - the Bosphorous by all reports - famous for the Hellespont and all of the challenges that the Hellespont brought in the great myths. Which brings us sweetly back to about the same epoch as the great philosopher.
I do get it but I also do wonder about the claims on websites along the lines of: All our tipping trailers are tilt tested and make IRTE Class A standard. Pretty tricky to do given the last tilt bed in the UK closed some time ago and the new chassis body combos popping up can have at best been done by calculation only. Advanced modeling shows that even the change of a suspension bush might kick you out by half of one degree. So good to see the best traditions of winging it are still there.
Clearly there is turmoil and distress back in the market from a quick run around companies house. The large European builders like to work with a metric of efficiency of say 14 trailers constructed per employee per annum. So how can it be that the UK manufactures work with about 4 trailers constructed per employee? If you purchase the chassis in from a third party you miss out all of those construction hours in your house. Unless the great Channel can defend them then the huge UK efficiency gap points towards why the distress at companies house is showing up. The UK market is just too small to allow the economies of scale to develop in the UK market. The Channel that protects also destroys the challenge to become efficient. However without scale this will show up as delayed investment in robots, engineering, exposure to new markets. So as long as the British buyer either Buys British and wants to ride around in a horse and cart or is unaware of 'heres what you could have had' then the same few companies will lurch from disaster to disaster. I guess we will see if the rumour mill proves correct.
Posted by Andrew on 21/10/2026
I had the awesome joy of visiting the biennal show in Hannover. Even if you have absolutely know interest in the world or the world of transport a visit to the IAA show is transformative.
I have been to about the last 20 years of the show and one of the few benefits of being old is that it gives you a slight overview of cogs turning in the world. I know nothing at all about engines - other than when I was a boy serving petrol at my fathers filling station in the village it was about 30pence a gallon for 2 star and cars used about as much oil as they did petrol each fill up. My father was in haulage from 1962 and engine power in trucks was perhaps 100 hp to 140 hp. Over the years the badges on the sides of the trucks he ran kept indicating larger numbers. Now I sit looking out the window and the odd one says 750hp and we are at 200pence per liter. Truckside fuel economy has stayed still - maybe nobody wants fuel economy - power has gone up for sure. So about 6 years ago you could walk into a hall at the IAA and it looked like a mad balloon man from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a car we used to store after the film in a barn and take to village fetes) had run around blowing up long balloons and sticking them on the back of convential looking trucks. All in the pursuit of hydrogen - HYDROGEN. Well my amateur chemistry at University informed me that hydrogen likes sticking to things like oxygen - a LOT. And therefore to split off and isolate Hydrogen from Oxygen or anything else really - took a vast amount of energy (or technique). Now plants have come up with a pathway that does it moderately well and moderately easily during photosynthesis (good technique). But man has not yet found a technique that gets much past 25 per cent efficiency (to get from electricity to electricity). So it is a fantastic technology waiting for a technique break through to make it logical. Also the huge tanks on the back of the trucks were commical - why were they not ALSO on the trailers where the balloons could be stored way more efficiently? So 6 years later - NOT A SINGLE party balloon in sight. But drum roll they Chinese show up. And not just show up - they totally dominate the show. Fully EV axles drivetrains, batteries, solar, container storage - the full works. Arguably it was the CATL show. The only party tents still going after 6 pm were the chinese show stands - with VIP queues into them. Scania, Volvo, DAF - all legacy ICE companies about to become pure party puppets for CATL and others. A Mercedes badge on the front of a Chinese ecosystem. Now this has been obvious for 10 years or so but to see it on show was jaw dropping. Sinotruck and BYD et al starting to flex their considerable muscles. Structured Chinese Government policy in company form.So Sinotruck might be part Chinese goverment, part company, and part owned by CATL (spot the pattern). They see an energy ecosystem as the goal not just a badge on the front of a truck like the Europeans.
Trailers were also seen as battery storage. Plenty of displays of trailers with powered middle axles and about 400 kwh of battery capability. The interesting thing was how little space 400 kwhr batteries occupies - although the weight is the dimension most argued about. Tesla had their semi on show and to ride in. It was a 6 x 2/4 comnbination with 500 kwhr and 40 tonne capability. The cab looked totally unsueable but there you go. It drew plenty of admirerers and selfies but it will be the Sinotruck that does the damage in Europe. And that is before the driverless offer comes to town.
Posted by Andrew on 06/10/2026
We were all delighted to attend the Knapen dealer day in Holland last week. Now not all dealer days are exciting and once you have been in the business 30 years another round of chats can dull the senses.
This one was a very good one. One of the take home was that the Krone Group - led by Bernard Krone IV (Herr Ingenieur) is now the largest manufacturers of trailers in Europe. A fourth generation family company really caring for its customers. Now greater than long term rivals Schmitz. Krone are relatively low ranking in the UK as they were reluctant to make trailers greater than 4 meters high - leaving the likes of SDC and Lawrence David to rule the roost here.
However 4 or so years ago they purchased Knapen Trailers to aquire a place in the Moving Floor market. Then they dived in again and purchased Schwarzmuller who make up to 11,000 trailers per annum. Crucially for us, some of this eleven thousand are Schwarzmuller Walking floor trailers. So in this move Krone have positioned themselves to not only be the largest in floors in Europe but also possibly the World!!
So by accident Newton Trailers is one of the largest sellers of Krone Group products in the UK market and exclusive supplier of Knapen and Schwarzmuller walking floors. Well done us.
What does this mean for the UK? Well something and nothing. Krone Group obviously bring scale and buying power to the game. Axles, tyres etc can be group purchased. However the world of floors bimbles along at a different pace with Aluminium being the big differentiator to other products. Aluminium purchasing is a dark art and no one really gets it 10 out of 10.
But the new position of Schwarzmuller in the Group gives Newton access to extra capacity to increase our position in the UK as the biggest moving floor manufacturer in the UK market. Hopefully we will give our customers here the best outcomes and best moving floor ecosystem - Product tick; parts tick; hire tick; workshop and repairs tick; one family run company supplied by another family run company caring about our customers.
Posted by Andrew on 23/06/2026
CBAM like VECTO & EBPMS is an acronym. And all three will change the lives of UK hauliers and trailer builders this year!
And normally I hate acronyms (from my Army days). Mostly 3 letter acronyms are bad but as they become bigger 4 and 5 letters they get a life of their own that will only bamboozle the user and listener.
To those precious few who read this blog you will be familiar with the fact that Newton is rabidly pro-planet. Strangely here at Newton we quite like living on this planet and are not hell bent on Formula 1, Truck racing, or helicopter-use and right royally shitting in our own nest.... our competition meh - less so - just read their facebook pages.
Anyway CBAM is new law entering into the EU in 2026 and UK in 2027 - it basically puts the prices up on products that ignore the environmental costs of their production - such as cheap coal carbon and cheap coal steel. So there is not a win for being the 'dirty man' buying cheap steel and cheap aluminium to undercut your competition. So Chinese steel will be 20% more expensive - Swedish steel zero price increase. Simples.
As you will know Newton provide a Carbon calculation on every trailer and every spare part that you purchase already. The ONLY company in Europe to do so. And we have been doing it since 2022!! What a bunch of weirdos.
So at last our passion for living on a clean and happy planet here at Newton's is lining up with new legislation - happy days. Hopefully our customers will not have price increases - as we are already careful about the source of our trailers. Unfortunately for our competion they will pay the price of more expensive clean or CBAM affected dirty steel and aluminium.
Hoorah bring on the future.
Posted by Andrew on 13/01/2026
3 More Sleeps Til Christmas
Blazed through another Year and with only 3 more sleeps til Christmas it's about time to look forward to 2026 as 2025 becomes chip paper.
2025 has been an interesting year in the bulk community. Within the wider world of Trucks - speaking to the head of Scania a mixed year.... even though Scania's Military side has taken a vast up tick from the shenanigins in Europe - a sad reason to be doing well I suppose - it's not just fighter jets and drones that move militaries forwards.
The agricultural community has taken quite a battering since Brexit. Farm incomes are not super healthy and Rachel Reeves has swept away any up beat feelings from family farms. In his last 2 fingers to the state we said goodbye to James Smith this year who as well as starting Newton in 1962 maintained a farm throughout his adult life.....So in departing the planet this year he did manage to dodge the Inheritance Tax attack on farms and farming families coming in April 2026. He would have been delighted to have disappointed Mrs Reeves - impecable timing dad!! So mostly 2025 was a replacement market for agriculture.
Waste and Construction held steady in 2025 and I think will go well in 2026. The fall in inflation and also in interest rates will give some confidence to the fleets and individuals to refresh in 2026. Housing is stutturing along and the Governments promise to build build build is yet to show up in the numbers but 2026 will be the year the numbers change upwards if Labour is going to have any success at all.
The runners and riders in the trailer manufacturing community have largely held themselves in a neutral position. All the manufacturers managed to survive 2025 and will look keen to fight for market shares in 2026.
The STAS tipping trailer had a steady 2025. There has been an excellent response to the engineering led HALO trailer from customers and a widespread acknowledgment of it's Class leading stability - the only trailer manufacturer in the UK to hold Class A IRTE tilt test standards and European DIN test standards whilst also reducing the total weight of it's design - the power of super computers in Engineering .... So an amazing 2026 is awaited
So all it remains to do is wish you all a very happy Christmas and a healthy and joyous New Year.
Posted by Andrew on 22/12/2025
