COLUMN: Carillon Flashback May 29, 1974 – American market helps Morris school bus plant

The Sheller-Globe bus plant in Morris has taken advantage of an available American market for a complete turn-around of the operation since the takeover by the American-based company last fall.

The manufacturer of Superior brand school buses has commitments for delivery of nearly 100 buses to American schools and is gearing up production to handle two buses a day at the Morris plant this year, with a possibility of four buses a day during the summer months.

The company’s general manager Ralph Berg attributes the success of the plant since the Sheller-Globe takeover to its location near the United States border.

While Flyer Industries ran the plant, they were solely dependent on the Canadian market but now nearly half of the projected production at the plant will be for the American market.

Berg said that over 90 school buses presently on production schedules at the plant will be exported to the United States for use in border states. He indicated that Canada to U.S. product flow is somewhat unusual, since the industry has a history of product flow in the opposite direction.

Marketed under the Superior School Bus brand name, the exporting of buses from the Canadian plant began during the last half of 1973. The company’s U.S.-based distributor organization realizes definite cost savings over similar buses produced in the U.S., Berg said.

The cost saving is gained primarily in the areas of distribution and delivery. Because the Morris plant is located within 25 miles of the American border, seven states have already ordered the Canadian Superior school bus. Schools in Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Wyoming and Idaho have found that they can receive the same bus for less money from the Morris plant than by having it delivered from the Sheller-Globe plant in Ohio.

Berg attributes the export activity to the effects of the energy crisis and rapidly growing material costs in the U.S. He indicated the company is presently studying a new distribution program that will increase delivery capabilities to the U.S. school system.

Another reason for the recent success of the Morris plant, Berg said, was the addition of equipment to manufacture some of the components for the buses. In the past, the plant had been run strictly as an assembly plant, which wasn’t financially feasible. Now seats for the buses, as well as wiring harnesses, are being manufactured at the Morris plant.

While in the past, just one type of bus for the Canadian market was assembled at the Morris plant, Sheller-Globe manufactures over 50 different types of buses for the United States and several changes have been made to the assembly line at Morris. Advisory personnel were brought in last fall from the company’s main plant and the staff at the Morris plant was increased from 20 to 30.

Berg said he was pleased that the Canadian-built bus was being well received in the U.S. and if the trend continues, it will create more jobs for Canadians in the years to come.