in response to the global e-commerce boom, German trailer builder Schmitz Cargobull has unveiled a new light-duty van body range, V.KO Dry, which expands the company's portfolio into the 'compact class'.
The new truck body line completes the Schmitz Cargobull portfolio with transport units for ‘last mile’ delivery, the company said, emphasising it is now able to offer trailers and bodies for the complete supply chain from 3.5 through to 44 tonnes.
The van box body kit comes in two standard sizes and can be adapted to the specifications of the vehicle manufacturers, Schmitz Cargobull pointed out, adding a new production line at the company's Berlin site is currently being designed and will likely handle an annual production of volume 7,500 units.
At the official unveiling of the V.KO Dry range, CEO, Andreas Schmitz not only pointed to the e-commerce fuelled growth potential of the parcel delivery segment, but also provided an overview of Schmitz Cargobull's current business year*, revealing that current orders exceed 61,000 units, with production expected at 56,000.
In the 2016/2017 business year, the upswing of the previous year has continued and Schmitz said he expects an increase in sales to over €2 billion.
“In terms of production volume and order intake, we have clearly exceeded our target figure of 47,000 trailers,” Schmitz said. “Curtain-sider production is undergoing particularly strong growth.”
Trailer output is forecast to rise by more than 22 per cent from 24,516 to 30,000 units in the current business year. Curtain-sider order intake is expected to reach 33,000 and reefer semi-trailers production is forecast to increase around 14 per cent to some 19,000 units.
“Volume markets in Central and Western Europe continue to set the trend and can compensate the low demand from Russia,” said Schmitz. France, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries are experiencing double-digit growth. Sales in Eastern Europe, Poland, Hungary and Romania are reportedly also positive.
For the new business year 2017/2018, the Board of Directors expects stable demand in spite of the continuing presence of uncertainties such as Brexit negotiations or the change of government in the US.
“In the 125th year of our existence we want to beat our previous sales record of almost €2.2 billion, which was set in 2007/2008,” said Schmitz.