Switchover at Mond plant now complete

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (June 7) — After reducing the number of production lines by half, the Mond Industries trailer plant just west of Toronto will soon nearly double its daily production. The difference is volume manufacturing expertise and a much reduced product mix.

Late last year, Chicago¹s Trailmobile Trailer Corp. acquired controlling interest (54%) in Mond for about C$8.6 million and then set about redesigning the three-year-old Canadian factory. And last Friday, with Trailmobile owner and chairman Edward Wanandi in attendance, Mond showed off the changes at an all-day open house.

The 110,000-sq-ft plant will now build only FRP dry vans, including insulated models and B-trains, but flats and any specialty trailer orders will go to other Trailmobile facilities in the U.S., mostly to Charleston, Ill. The product range was previously an extensive one. On the same two-shift foundation, by January of next year the plant will be able to make 30 trailers a day instead of the previous 16.

All trailers built there now carry the Trailmobile name, and about 2000 of the 5500 annual total anticipated will be exported to the northeastern U.S. According to Trailmobile president Jay Nieszel, that pleases American dealers greatly, because transportation costs are cut by as much as US$800. In a competitive market that treats trailers as commodities, that¹s a big gain, and it will help meet the target of 7500 units out of the Mond plant by the end of 2000. Of course, Mond will also be building the 2000 vans that Trailmobile had recently been exporting to Canada.

Among the changes to the plant are more efficient production methods that bring lower manufacturing costs, as well as many product changes. For example, liners are now made of more durable fir plywood instead of a cheaper mahogany. Some other changes make previously standard Mond features optional now. In effect, the product is something of a hybrid, combining Mond and Trailmobile features. All in all, says Nieszel, the result will be a dry van that costs a little less than before.

For owners of Mond trailers built over the last few years, sales and marketing vice president Bert Clay offers the assurance that parts will remain available.

For his part, the ever smiling Wanandi is bullish about the future of both the Mond plant and the industry in general. He sees ³a healthy market for the next 12 months.²

His ambitions for the new Trailmobile/Mond combination are straightforward: ³We just want to be a friendly company to do business with,² he says.