ERF (lorry manufacturer)

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = ERF
company_
fate = Bought/Closed
successor = MAN AG
foundation = 1933
defunct = 2007
location = flagicon|England Sandbach, Cheshire
industry = Truck
key_people = Edwin Richard Foden (Founder)
products =
num_employees =
parent = flagicon|Germany MAN AG
subsid =

ERF was a British truck manufacturer. Established in 1933 by Edwin Richard Foden, its factory in Sandbach, Cheshire was closed in 2002, and finished as a brand by owner MAN AG in 2007.

History

Established in 1933 by Edwin Richard Foden, who had left Foden - the company founded by his father - because he believed the future lay in diesel rather than steam power and based in Sandbach in Cheshire, the company made their own chassis and cab with engines from Gardner, Cummins, Perkins, Detroit Diesel and Caterpillar.

ERFs used to be marketed under the Western Star badge in some countries such as Australia. It built a specialist fire engine chassis, with a body built on by in-house company JH Jennings, later Cheshire Fire Engineering. However, when recession came in the early 1980's and production fell from a total output of 4,000 chassis per annum, CFE was sold to management to eventually become Saxon Sanbec.

The company was bought by Canadian truck maker Western Star in 1996. However, after PACCAR's purchase of both DAF Trucks and Leyland Trucks increased competitive pressure, and Western Star was approached by Freightliner corporation, the decision was made to sell ERF.

Purchase by MAN

In 2000, ERF became part of MAN. MAN bought the company on the understanding that ERF was profitable, but it was found that its Financial Controller had for years been syphoning monies from the company, and resultantly MAN sued Western Star successfully in the British courts. Freightliner tried to sue Western Star and ERF's former auditors, but failed on technical grounds of corporate negligence [ [http://www.healys-solicitors.co.uk/ArticleDetail.aspx?articleId=c0c0183a-94f9-4d61-96af-27bd413aa4cb Healys Solicitors - London - Brighton - Articles ] ]

Final model range

ERF's final model range consisted of the ECT, ECM and ECL built on MAN's production line in Nuremberg (for heavy trucks), and a plant in Middlewich for light trucks (positioned to win a contract from the Ministry of Defence for 8,000 new British Army trucks).

All the ERF trucks were based on MAN's existing products, the only difference being that the ERF model came with the option of specifying use of Cummins ISMe power plant as an alternate to MAN's own D20 common rail power-plant. The Middlewich factory was closed by MAN in 2002, with production of the ECT, ECM and ECL units to Salzburg, Austria where they are built on the same facilities as their identical MAN counterparts.

In the light of Cummins' intransigence on upgrading the ISMe engine to comply with the Euro4 emission regulations, MAN initially took the decision to replace it completely with the new series of MAN D20 engines. [ [http://www.bizbuzzmedia.com/blogs/big_lorry_blog/archive/2005/12/2.aspx Big Lorry Blog : Friday, December 02, 2005 - Posts ] ] With ERF badging only used for the British market, MAN decided to cease the supply of ERF badged trucks from July 2007.

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.erf.com/ Official website]
* [http://fleetdata.co.uk/erf.html History in Fleet Data website]