25 YEARS AND ALL THAT
(A look at the last 25 years of the FMCEC)
Part 1 - by David Barrell

Tell us about the FMCEC during your last 25 years they said. Although there are many companies who have been members for more than that there are a lot of others who joined much more recently. Well here we go warts and all and it is not just a history lesson, I think there are lessons to be learned.

The year 2000 is still comparatively young so I have chosen my 25 years from October 1974, which was the Federation's 33rd anniversary. The Federation started in October 1941 as the Federation of Manufacturers of Construction Plant, at the suggestion of the then Government who not only wanted British manufacturers to develop equipment which was useful in the war effort, but also so that they could take advantage of the rebuilding of Europe. It looks like they had the right idea and our members at that time must have done a good job, and of course the British contractors whom they supplied, as Europe-was rebuilt to the extent that during the last 25 years British-based manufacturers have faced more and more competition from manufacturers outside the UK. Happily many of them are now members of the Federation and its relationships with appropriate Government departments continue to be well based even though they do not always do what we would like them to!

Of our existing manufacturing membership of 65 companies, 6 can be traced back to the founders meeting. 15 others can be traced back as members for more than 25 years. In 1969 the Federation absorbed the old Crane Makers Association and its title became even longer. At our recent AGM members were invited to suggest a shorter and perhaps more appropriate title bearing in mind the wider range of industries now represented.

Co-operation with the component suppliers has been important from the beginning, although the membership was not as great as it now is. OEM production forecasts year by year for three-yearly periods at a time were introduced as a means of helping the suppliers plan ahead. There are now professional organisations whose business is to forecast the future and publicise trends in production and sales and happily the three most prominent companies are members of the Federation.

A few rnilestones are worth recording:-

• 1. The state of trade in the 1970s was an important subject for regular discussion and issues such as steel supplies, the price of fuel, developments within the European Economic Community (as it was then called) and tariff changes were matters of regular concern. As now, the Council was concerned about the value of the pound, but their opinion was that "as long as it is left floating UK equipment should remain competitive with products from the Community". The arguments continue. The US dollar then was $2.40 and subsequently $2.08 in 1981 - where does that leave us now at $1.60 to the pound?
• 2. Our CECE membership and its ability to co-ordinate views of all European manufacturers was regarded as important, hence in 1959 the Federation was a founder member. A strong input on all matters affecting UK manufacturers continues today. Coincidentally, 1974 was the year when I found myself nominated to be Secretary General of CECE with the Federation staff operating the CECE Secretariat. "This is only for a two year period" they said - but it turned out to be 20 years before a full-time CECE Secretariat, based in Frankfurt and then in Brussels, was set up.
• 3. The three-yearly Directory of British Construction Equipment, published by the Federation since 1947, was going from strength to strength in 1974 and regarded worldwide as the bible for information on UK products. Now we have different methods of publicising member capabilities, including a Federation Web Site with links to member Web pages.
• Assisting members make the most of ecommerce facilities is another Federation target.
• 4. The cyclical nature of demand for construction equipment, and ways to avoid it, was as popular a subject in 1974 as it still is. Demand for most equipment was too low for comfort and cost escalations for manufacturers, price controls and skills shortages were contentious subjects discussed with HM Government.
• 5. In 1974 members complained that there were too many exhibitions - nothing changes - so the Federation championed the cause for identifying and recommending those which appeared most likely to be of major benefit to UK manufacturers. With member support it succeeded in converting a UK biennial public works exhibition into a three-yearly more international event designed to compete with some of the developing European-based exhibitions. Sadly support was not consistent ,1947 enough from industry to develop a UK-based alternative to the other international exhibitions even though HRH The Princess Royal opened the 1990 event in London. I still regard that as an opportunity lost by the industry, even though I still have a high opinion of the existing SED and Hillhead exhibitions.

In more recent years the Federation has instead promoted British Groups at the most important international exhibitions which, with some Government assistance, has enabled many companies to exhibit their products at very large international events far cheaper than they might have done on their own. 1974 was the year when the Federation began its links with CIMA (the USA manufacturers' trade association) and today their international construction equipment exhibition Conexpo-Con.Agg - regularly has the biggest contingent of national manufacturers from the FMCEC than any other national trade association.

To be continued in the next issue of Newsline.