MHW Magazine News and stories from the Materials Handling Industry
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, made a whistle stop tour of the Cartwright factory earlier this week before his major speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
The Chancellor spent nearly an hour at the leading body and trailer manufacturer’s headquarters, meeting Directors and staff as well as talking on the job to some of the company’s apprentices.
His visit included a tour of the Cartwright manufacturing complex where he had the opportunity to see first hand some of the Cartwright products in build which included the production line of 300 x 7.5 tonne box vans for major customer TNT. This new body design includes enhanced Cheetah aerodynamics.
The Chancellor got his hands dirty helping to fit a component part onto the front bulkhead of a trailer in the production line with the help of one of the firm’s young apprentices and then went on to help seal the front of another trailer with an apprentice.
Cartwright has recently taken on its latest intake of 40 new apprentices taking its total number of new apprentices to 80 over the past two years.
The Chancellor also found time during his visit to have a personal meeting with Cartwright’s joint Managing Directors, John and Steven Cartwright, where he discussed the company’s investment in apprentices and the firm’s plans for growth in the future.
John Cartwright commented: "We were delighted that George Osborne found time during his busy schedule on the day of the Conservative Party Conference to visit Cartwright and have the opportunity to see our products being manufactured at first hand as well as meeting some of our young apprentices.
"We had a very constructive discussion with him about manufacturing and indeed the transport industry generally and we hope he found his visit of benefit," he said.
