Cheshire-based articulated trailer OEM, Tiger, has manufactured a further 134 curtainsiders during summer 2022 for Howdens Joinery, the UK’s number one trade kitchen supplier, taking its share of the operator’s fleet to around 30%.
Last year, Tiger Trailers built 82 curtainsided semi-trailers for Howdens, and in previous years the manufacturer has provided its longstanding customer with specialist vehicles such as a single-axle urban curtainsider.
Howdens’ fleet joins tradespeople every day on the roads, traveling the length and breadth of the country, and its latest trailer additions from Tiger are liveried with the kitchen and joinery firm’s new ‘Made by us. Available through the Trade only’ messaging as part of their impactful red and black design.
Charlie Nissen, Howdens’ National Transport Manager, comments: “It’s been a pleasure dealing with Darren and the Tiger team again. It’s always great to tour the facilities part way through the manufacturing run to see some of our trailers being expertly made. As always the trailers have been supplied on schedule with no issues and to their usual high standards”.
The 4.3-metre tall curtainsiders are galvanised for strength and durability, built to the EN 12642 XL standard and, as part of Tiger’s ethos as a manufacturer, tailored to the end user’s requirements with a bespoke load securing/restraint system along with other components such as trackers, air tabs on the roof, blind spot warning decals, a raised coupling box, and various LED marker lights to keep driver-operators and others in the vicinity safe.
Supplied to Howdens via two trailer finance and leasing houses, Tiger’s latest curtainsiders for the joinery company are built on chassis fabricated by the UK manufacturer’s Spanish partner, Lecitrailer, to enable the vehicles to be manufactured in a relatively short timescale to meet the customer’s operational timetables.
Darren Holland, Tiger Trailers’ Sales Director, says: “It’s been a pleasure as always to work with Charlie and the Howdens team on this latest batch of trailers for them and at Tiger we’re extremely proud to have supported our customer for a number of years”.
A percentage of Howdens’ new curtainsiders will be operated in Ireland, where Tiger Trailers has been growing its customer-base over the last twelve months, with over 150 different trailer types including twin-axle box vans having been manufactured for operators throughout the island of Ireland.
In conjunction with Howdens’ transport partner, Uniserve, a photoshoot and videos were arranged at Tiger Trailers’ Winsford factory site before the trailers departed for service on the firm’s 700-strong trailer fleet at an exciting time for the company following the adoption of HVO and LNG, along with the trial of electric vehicles.