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Renault's lead times will not improve in 2008, even though the UK will get a larger proportion of the manufacturer's output says Renault Trucks UK MD Laurent Farman. He explains that the manufacturer will struggle to meet existing demand so the problems of long lead times will continue into next year: "2007 is a record year for us. Orders in trucks are very strong - up 64% in 2007, and eastern Europe  has grown by 235%. Most truck manufacturers are experiencing the same conditions.

"Our market share in Europe is not that great and has gone down by 1-1.5%, despite good orders for trucks," he adds. "This is mainly due to difficulties at the beginning of the year in manufacturing all the new models in Euro-4 and 5. We struggled to supply all the models for Euro-5, but we're now back on track." The UK has had a good year, Farman reports, even though the market is not as buoyant as the rest of Europe: "We will probably manage to keep market share about 4.5%, but we have a strong order book. Last month (October) we had record figures. We took more than 1,000 orders in October, while for the whole of 2007 in the UK we expect to take 3,500 orders, so October was two and half times a normal month's orders."

He describes the UK as a priority market for Renault Trucks: "At the beginning of January 2007 we approved a three-year plan for the UK market with the objective of doubling  our business in three years." The company also has a network development plan this year it has opened sites in Cambridge, Maidstone, Croydon and Haydock: "We have worked hard to improve our coverage and improve the quality of the network. We are also working towards service quality. Each year we have a mystery customer audit. We have just finished that exercise in the UK and we have the best figures in the Europe."

Looking forward to next year, Farman expects the market will continue to grow: "There is still very strong demand from eastern Europe and we expect that even in Spain, France and Germany the strong demand will continue." He says the objective next year is to recover market share that was lost in 2007: "We are currently investing a lot in facilities and production facilities to increase our production rate. "Lead times will not improve in 2008 because demand is still very strong.

"We have started to increase production capacity but it will take time. We have managed to go from 180 trucks per day in 2006 and will be at 300 trucks per day in 2008. But even with that it's not enough to fulfil the demand we have." However, he promises that the UK will have more trucks allocated to it next year which means "we should be able to increase our market share significantly to six or 6.5%". During 2008 Renault will spend £10m on three new sites in Coventry, Leicester and Northampton.