It’s ‘Ruby Tuesday’ as Mertrux celebrates 40th in CV Show style
Visitors to the Commercial Vehicle Show 2011 were treated to an impressive display of trucks marking the 40th anniversary of Britain’s longest-serving Mercedes-Benz dealer.
Mertrux, which has headquarters in Derby and other dealerships in Leicester, Nottingham and Mansfield, has represented the three-pointed star in the East Midlands since 1971, three years before Mercedes-Benz UK opened for business.
And to mark its Ruby anniversary, the dealer presented two very different tractor units at the main entrance to the CV Show exhibition halls, which demonstrated just how far truck technology has come over the last four decades.
One was a 32-tonne ‘bull nose’ Mercedes-Benz LPS1418. The first vehicle ever sold by Mertrux, it went for the princely sum of £6,250 to Burton-based Draycott Transport, which was to buy several more Mercedes trucks over the years that followed.
The other was a state-of-the-art 44-tonne Mercedes-Benz Actros complete with flat-floored MegaSpace cab bedecked in a red and gold livery proclaiming the dealership’s 40-year milestone.
The Mertrux team on duty in Birmingham also entertained existing and prospective customers as well as representatives of the manufacturer and suppliers in their own private suite.
Mertrux was founded by Don Marshall, who went on to build something of an ‘empire’ – in addition to its Mercedes-Benz truck and van franchise the group has several other interests within the transport sector.
It is very much a family concern. While Don remains as Chairman, his eldest son Ian became Managing Director in 2005 having previously served as Dealer Principal, and daughter Sarah and youngest son Matthew are also employed within the business. The latest recruit is Ian’s 19-year-old daughter Lucie, the first of Don’s 10 grandchildren to join the firm.
Mertrux has won numerous Mercedes-Benz and industry awards and maintains a high profile within its community, having supported a wide range of deserving causes down the years.
The company employs 148 sales, service and parts specialists, as well as administrative staff, across its four locations. It enjoys an admirably low level of staff turnover and the Marshall family are proud of the fact that their workforce includes no fewer than 20 individuals with 20 years’ service, while six have clocked up 30 years, four have served 35 years and one, Chris Insley, the workshop foreman at Derby, has been with Mertrux since the very beginning, having joined Don as a school-leaver.
Ian Marshall said: “The Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle range has long been recognised as the finest on the market and it’s nice to know that our 40th anniversary as a representative of the marque coincides with the manufacturer’s celebrations to commemorate the fact that Karl Benz produced the world’s first motor vehicle 125 years ago.”
He continued: “Our industry has undergone enormous changes over the last 40 years, both in terms of the legislative framework within which we all operate and the technological sophistication of the trucks and vans our customers rely upon to get the job done.
“But one thing remains as true today as it was on the day that my father launched Mertrux back in 1971 – this is a ‘people’ business, always has been and always will be. And that applies not only to the quality of the relationships we have with our customers, but every bit as importantly to the quality of the people we employ and trust to deliver the industry-leading standards of service that operators are entitled to expect from Mercedes-Benz.”
