Coach builder's spin-off success

Darlaston firm Leeward Coach Builders has won a contract to build 500 body shells a year for the new Modec, currently in production in Coventry.

It is a major boost for the 16-year-old bodybuilding and engineering company which has previously concentrated on producing bodywork for a range of commercial and plant vehicles.

That work is still Leeward's bread and butter, explained managing director Mark Haddock, but the Modec deal is a major boost for the business.

The Modec is a new environmentally friendly, electrically-powered delivery vehicle being produced by a private firm founded by Jamie Borwick, former chairman of Manganese Bronze, who declared: "Our aim is to turn 'white van man' into 'green van man'."

The vans have already proved a hit with supermarket giant Tesco, which became the first UK company to run a fleet of the battery-powered zero emission delivery vans, launching them at its latest Tesco Extra environmental store in Shrewsbury earlier this year.

The Modec vans have the same carrying capacity as a standard Tesco.com delivery van, can cover a range of over 100 miles before they need recharging and are limited to a maximum speed of 50 mph.

Leeward has won the job of making the bodyshells behind the vehicle cab, securing the work with some nifty design.

Mr Haddock said: "We had been involved in the design of the van over the past 12 months and they liked our work, feeling its rather futuristic and streamlined look was in keeping with such a modern vehicle.

"Our shell matches the design of the cab, rather than simply being a box on the back. As a result we were able to beat the competition for the work to build up to 500 bodies a year as part of the production process."

Although Leeward now employs 45 people, it is still very much the family firm that was founded 16 years ago, with Mark as managing director, two brothers working with him and their father working as a design engineer.

The firm combines its years of engineering experience with the latest computer aided design technology and manufacturing methods to produce a range of bodywork for commercial vehicles such as Renaults and Vauxhalls.

"With all our facilities on one site we can offer body manufacture, paint, shotblast, fabrication, fibreglass engineering, profiling, tailift fitment to name a few," said Mr Haddock.

As well as a range of commercial vehicle bodies, from dropside and curtainsider to box and Luton body vans, car transporters and milk floats, the firm also produces its own design of tipper as well as cabs and rollover frames for forklift trucks, diggers and agricultural vehicles.

The Modec work is part of a current surge in business.

"Things in manufacturing tend to go from very quiet to absolutely mad. It was quiet earlier in the year and now we are very busy indeed with a whole range of work," added Mr Haddock.

The firm also makes the John Oates range of horseboxes which were used by the British Equestrian Olympic Team at Athens in 2004.