Is This The Start Of The End of Barford Dumpers?

When Wordsworth Holdings Ltd entered administration in March 2010 it was the end of Barford dumper production in Grantham as, along with Fruehauf trailers, Huffey Group prison furniture and Stanhay Webb precision seed drills it was owned by the holding company owned by Duncan Wordsworth.

It was hoped that Barford dumpers would emerge phoenix like from administration and continue production that traced its lineage back to 1937 and the formation of Aveling Barford. However, it was not to be and Barford dumpers disappeared beneath the surface of the pond of administration never to be seen again, an un-fitting end to what at one time was the 3^rd largest dumper producer in the world.

As the largest supplier of Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB and Mecalac dumper parts in the UK PES tried to purchase the dumper spare parts stock and supplier list from the administrator but on several visits to the Grantham facility there was found to be not very much to purchase. As PES had started sourcing Barford dumper parts 18 months previously because of the lack of availability from the OEM it was decided not to purchase anything and just further our sourcing of more Barford dumper parts from suppliers which we did, rapidly becoming the ‘go-to’ source for Barford dumper parts for the Barford SX and Barford SXR dumper range.

However, after 16 years of slowly seeing the amount of parts for Barford dumpers sold diminish as the vehicle parc shrunk as machines were scrapped or disappeared to deepest darkest Africa, the amount of Barford dumper parts that PES stock has gone from over a 1000 line items to less than 50. As the need for Barford dumper parts has got less we have not re-stocked as we ran out, primarily because of the minimum order quantities from suppliers. It’s okay ordering 100 handbrake cables at a time when you’re selling 20 a month but when you are down to selling 1 or 2 a month it’s not worth it.

We have supported the product for over 16 years and have proudly stated that we are the largest supplier of Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB, Mecalac and Barford dumper parts in the UK. With just 50 line items left and even that figure going down on a monthly basis, I think it’s time to remove the ‘Barford’ bit from the accolade. We’ll still be able to supply parts for Barford dumpers where they cross-refer to a Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB and Mecalac dumpers but the dedicated Barford dumper parts will slowly become obsolete and not available.