DAY
Recently, it was announced that Woodall Nicholson, the parent company of Mellor Coachcraft, was acquiring Treka Bus. It was interesting to see that Treka had drawn the company’s interest, as on the face of it they appeared to be working to two different philosophies.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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Mellor has expanded its range dramatically in recent years and is rapidly expanding its export network throughout Europe, with the company making its first appearance at Busworld this year. Meanwhile Treka has firmly stuck to its guns and built a name for itself with just two vehicles – a van conversion almost exclusively built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, and a 16-seater coachbuilt vehicle. The company has been able to dominate the rental market for these accessible vehicles, with repeat orders from London Hire, Enterprise and Dawsonrentals.
Shortly before the announcement of the takeover, I just so happened to pay Treka Bus a visit, after speaking to Sales Manager Helen Day and Coach & Bus UK this year. I was surprised to learn of the scale of the business, which produces seven vehicles per week, because it does an excellent job of promoting itself as an approachable family business.
It was great to hear how the company has expanded on the back of the quality of its small range of vehicles. I particularly liked how Treka takes care to only provide extras that its customer requires instead of trying to upsell extra seats and features which will never be used for better looking sales statistics. I’m sure it will continue to be well regarded under the new ownership, where it will continue to operate as its own brand.
In the news this month, the battle over the community transport industry has continued. The Transport Committee has held a meeting where both sides were invited to give their views. However, the most clear conclusion to be drawn from the proceedings was that lack of clarity is a major problem.
I’ve done my best to condense the discussion, which ran for almost two hours, into this week’s news section, but I would encourage anyone who is following this subject to watch the meeting for themselves, which is publically available on the Transport Committee website: https://bit.ly/TCMeeting. [/wlm_ismember]
