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Trailer-maker Dennison dismissed suggestions this week that its Irish factory was to close.

According to James Dennison, managing director of the company in the UK, both its Lancaster factory and its one in Naas, Co Kildare, in the Republic of Ireland, will remain open. Dennison has had several enquiries about whether the Irish factory was going to close, but says these were based on unsubstantiated rumours.

He adds  that Dennison needs both factories to produce its trailers. The Naas factory is used for the main structures, with the finishing-off work done in Lancaster.

But like like other trailer-makers, Dennison admits that production has fallen to "substantially less" than the 60 trailers a week it was making at its peak. Staff levels have also fallen from the peak of 200, although again Dennison is reluctant to put a figure on how many redundancies the company has made.

Meanwhile, Cartwright Group director Steven Cartwright says it is now making around 60 trailers a week against 120 at its maximum.

But he adds that the company continues to do well because it is getting more rigid and swap-body work, and is still doing a lot of this type of work for customers including TNT, DHL  and the Royal Mail.

Its trailer rental business is also earning the Cartwright Group money in the downturn. It has 8,000 trailers on rental this year compared with 7,000 last year; the increase almost entirely accounted for by a rise in short-term trailer rentals from 2,000 to 3,000.