Burg Silvergreen takes off

• New factory in Günzburg will be completed this year.

• A network of workshops and spare part logistics guarantee top service from the start. 

• First product presentation at the IAA 2012.

Hanover, 20th September 2012. Burg Silvergreen, new manufacturer of semitrailers and HGV trailers with head office in Neu-Ulm, is beginning to market its vehicles in selected European countries at the IAA Commercial Vehicles 2012. At a press conference during the IAA Burg Silvergreen Managing Director Marc Meylaers said: “We are starting with a new philosophy and we are offering our customers highly innovative products and attractive services as well. We want to make the transport industry more environmentally-friendly and our customers more successful."

The company, whose head office is currently in Neu-Ulm, already has manufacturing sites in Belgium and the Netherlands and can rely on a network of supplier production sites in China.

The company

The company Burg Silvergreen was founded in 2010 in Ulm and is a subsidiary of CIMC (China International Marine Containers), the world's largest manufacturer of containers and semitrailers with head office in Shenzhen, China. The other partner is Peter van der Burg, the Chief Executive of CIMC Burg.

CIMC has been enjoying success in China, North and South America, Asia and Australia for many years. The Chinese concern has built its own production sites and established brands here, such as Vanguard National Trailer in the USA: CIMC's vision is to be a global partner to the modern transport industry. In Europe, CIMC's activities began in 2007. The CIMC Burg Group, a manufacturer of special commercial vehicles, tanks and tank vehicles, was formed through the amicable takeover of the majority holding in family company Burg Industries. The CIMC Burg Group now includes renowned individual manufacturers with a rich heritage, such as LAG, Burg, Hobur and Burgers. 

Founding of the new brand Burg Silvergreen was preceded by attempts to acquire European trailer manufacturers. CIMC did try, for example, to buy the insolvent firm Kögel Fahrzeugwerke GmbH through the Dutch subsidiary CIMC Burg in 2009. 

The parent company CIMC is an exemplary success story. Founded in 1980 in Shenzhen, China, the company began production of the first standardised sea container in 1982. CIMC went public twelve years later, following rapid growth and development into a global concern. In 2007, CIMC reached the production level of two million containers a year for the first time. Since 2009, CIMC has been one of the top 2000 World Leading Companies (Forbes magazine). Last year, CIMC employed around 64,000 people at 50 production sites and they achieved a turnover of around 8.1 billion euros. Container business accounted for around half of this turnover. CIMC is a world market leader in the field with a market share of 50 percent. Accounting for 30 percent of group turnover, vehicle production is CIMC's second largest revenue driver. With more than 150,000 special and series vehicles per year, CIMC is the largest producer of semitrailers and special-purpose vehicles in the world. Passenger walkways and stairs, aircraft tugs and other airport equipment are another business area for the company. CIMC is also a market leader here with a 25-percent market share.  Other business fields include the production of tanks and equipment for the chemical and foodstuff industry, as well as the production of crude oil drilling platforms and special ships, such as tugboats and pipe laying vessels.

The founding of Burg Silvergreen is a clear sign of the Chinese parent company's goal of becoming a leading trailer manufacturer in Europe in the medium-term. "To catch up with manufacturers of semitrailers and HGV trailers.The newly developed products will form the basis of this, but also linked production in a network of several sites across Europe and Asia, which all have the same high production quality, as well as excellent sales and service structures.Managing Director Marc Meylaers:"The newly developed products will form the basis of this, but also the linked production in a network of our sites in Europe and Asia, as well as excellent sales and service structures. Marc Meylaers: "We would like to become a valued partner to the European transport industry." 

The current team is consisting over 70 persons in New-Ulm and further 130 people at the production sites.  At the administration office in New-Ulm is made up predominantly of skilled engineers and specialists with many years' trailer and industry expertise. Together the trailer specialists have more than 500 years' commercial vehicle experience between them and an impressive list of more than 100 innovations and patents. Alongside Managing Director Marc Meylaers, the executive team includes Directors Stefan Oberdörfer (Marketing, Services and After Market), Paul Stempfle (Development, Design and Homologation), Markus Rees (Production, Production Scheduling and Logistics), Milan Strmecki (Sales, Product and Quality Management), Rainer Burkhardt (Purchasing) and Alan Zhang (Networking and Communication with CIMC).

The new trailer philosophy

Against a background of extremely tough competition in the transport industry, coupled with increased resource scarcity, rising energy costs, increasing environmental impact and global climate change, Burg Silvergreen has taken the approach of linking its economic and ecological goals from the start. Stefan Oberdörfer: "At Burg Silvergreen the customer and protecting and preserving the environment are at the forefront of our business activity – on an equal footing." As Oberdörfer made clear at the press conference, the founding of the new company afforded a unique opportunity to take an integrated and consistent approach to ecological and commercial goals in all areas: products, production, energy concept, building, operating materials, logistics and processes. "We want to make the transport industry more environmentally-friendly and our customers more successful." This is reflected, for example, in the ecological approach to production, in the vehicles' optimised fuel consumption and recyclability of materials, but also in management with a deliberate approach to resources like energy or paper. 

 In addition to the appealing and environmentally-friendly products, Marc Meylaers believes the foundations for the declared goal of becoming a leading and valued partner to the European transport industry, also include the company's strong and stable ownership structure, a clear long-term strategy, experienced and skilled personnel, flexible, efficient and ecological production, plus the opportunities for global procurement within and outside the CIMC Group.

Product range

The range of products will initially cover the most important and marketable vehicles. In addition to curtainsider trailers with sliding tarpaulins or platform gates, from the autumn customers will also be able to buy refrigerated semitrailers and transport solutions for intermodal transport, such as container chassis, swap bodies and swap trailers. All vehicles are based on a modular system and are built to car standards, which means the firm can offer a broad range of design solutions and equipment when there are a large number of common parts and system components. This enables Burg Silvergreen to combine the advantages of series production with customer-specific made-to-order production and implement this to customers' advantage.

Burg Silvergreen will present the completely new vehicles for the first time at the IAA Commercial Vehicles 2012 from 20th-27th September in Hanover. Burg Silvergreen will be in Hall 27, Stand C06 at the IAA.

Production

The firm already has its own complete and fully functioning production sites for semitrailers and trailers at Pijnacker in the Netherlands and Bree in Belgium. Further plants in Austria and in China supply parts and systems. Following completion in the spring, the new factory in Günzburg will serve as the parent plant and administrative head office for the new brand and will work in a production network with the two existing production sites and the suppliers. Most products will then be produced in Günzburg and distributed to the European target markets from there.

Overall, Burg Silvergreen will then have three assembly sites and three supplier sites at its disposal, of which four are in Europe and two in China. The Chinese Burg Silvergreen plants will exclusively produce labour-intensive components with no customer relevance, such as longitudinal beams, cross members or welded components. The company will acquire all customer-relevant system components and parts from suppliers from well-known European manufacturers. "In general we have established very lean production structures, in order to avoid unnecessary costs and so that we can adjust capacities flexibly to market demand", says Managing Director Marc Meylaers, explaining the concept. "This means our customers can trust that we are working to the high German quality standards at all our sites." 

Despite the comparatively high labour costs in Germany, the new trailer manufacturer has opted for a new production site in Germany and has chosen Günzburg as the location. Managing Director Meylaers lists several reasons for this: "Road transport in Central Europe will continue to grow in the long-term and above all in the markets that are already strong, like Germany, Benelux, Poland and the Czech Republic." This makes investing in a local production site to create additional capacity both sensible and necessary. "Germany will remain the most important sales market in Europe for the foreseeable future." Moreover, a new site, like the one in Günzburg, gives us an opportunity to implement the Silvergreen strategy of environmentally-friendly, sustainable production. Last but not least, the Günzburg site offers optimum conditions thanks to its geographic location at the heart of Europe, the proximity to a few major HGV manufacturers, the logistical connection to the motorway and the nearby container terminal in Dornstadt, and thanks to the high availability of skilled personnel in the region.

The new plant in Günzburg is being built on a 100,000-square-metre site right on the Günzburg exit to the A8 motorway. Burg Silvergreen has also secured an option to an additional 40,000 square metres. 

The company will build the assembly plant first, quickly followed by an administrative building, which will eventually serve as the head office. The total investment in the new site amounts to around 30 million euros. In the medium-term Burg Silvergreen intends to employ 300 people in Günzburg. 

Sales

From the autumn, Burg Silvergreen will have an extensive sales network in many European countries at its disposal. The new trailer brand will initially concentrate on the strong European transport and commercial vehicle markets in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Russia. The sales area will then be enlarged from 2013 to more European countries, in Scandinavia, Western and Southern Europe, and in the rest of Eastern Europe.

With regard to sales, Burg Silvergreen is relying both on its own staff with many years' experience in their region, but also on national and international sales partners with existing infrastructure and the best contacts to the commercial vehicle customers in their respective sales areas.

After Market

Burg Silvergreen's service network will also go live at the same time as sales activities start at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in September. Head After Market Oberdörfer: "In parallel to the development of vehicles, we have built up our own network of contract workshops from the start. We have already acquired over 100 top partners for our target markets." The workshops we have concluded contracts with are selected, independent and successful companies in their regions, with high repair expertise and an excellent approach to customer service. All authorised Burg Silvergreen workshops have already worked as contract workshops for the most important component and system suppliers, such as Michelin, Conti, Goodyear, SAF, BPW, Wabco, Haldex, Hella, Knorr, Carrier and Thermo King. 

Thanks to a strategic partnership with ADAC and EuropeNet, Burg Silvergreen customers will also be connected to a network of 4,500 partner workshops across the whole of Europe. Furthermore, the free Burg Silvergreen Service-Hotline on 00800 100 24 365 offers assistance to all customers across the whole of Europe at any time. The Hotline staff offer immediate assistance, perhaps for an on-site repair, towing service, hotel, workshop scheduling or language help. "Our Hotline is easy to remember" declares Stefan Oberdörfer. "Because 100 24 365 stands for 100 percent assistance, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year."

Burg Silvergreen customers will also have access to a comprehensive and fast spare parts service from the start. Burg Silvergreen is building a strategic partnership with Europart, the leading European parts dealer in the trailer sector. Europart currently employs 1,600 staff across Europe and is represented in 23 countries with 140 subsidiaries and trading partners in the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia. This closely linked network guarantees fast spare part availability locally or delivery usually within 24 hours. The maximum delivery time within Europe should not exceed 48 hours. Oberdörfer: "We are ensuring our customers have a good supply from the start with high availability and fast delivery of spare parts."