Mudflap sales help Souter to clean up

Published on Saturday 27 June 2009 13:55

A SCOTTISH start-up backed by Stagecoach founder Brian Souter and fashion entrepreneur Angus Morrison is looking to grow turnover to more than £50 million in the next three years from sales of its road safety device that claims to reduce spray from lorry wheels by almost half.

Spraydown, the Stirling-based transport technology company that was founded in 2006, has developed a mudflap for heavy goods vehicles that reduces spray and helps cut fuel costs.

Traditional mudflaps are solid, so water bounces off them, dispersing spray sideways into the path of other vehicles. But the patented Spraydown mudflaps direct spray under the vehicle, stabilising the airflow.

Spraydown managing director Steve Nesbitt says that since bringing the product to market in the past few months a number of major supermarket chains have already converted their haulage fleets to Spraydown. He says the firm is in negotiations with DHL in America and Tata in India to roll the concept out worldwide.

He said: "Given the fact that it reduces spend on fuel and at the same time has the benefit of reducing spray it should be a no-brainer for these major fleets to convert anyway.

"Since we have brought the product to market it has really taken off particularly in the United States. The next step will be Australia and China."

Spraydown was created after the purchase of the intellectual property and patents from inventor John Downes by Angus Morrison's Melville Capital investment firm in Edinburgh and Souter Investments.

Downes came up with the idea after a journey along the A74 on a winter evening where the spray thrown up by HGVs meant visibility was extremely limited.

Downes developed a mudflap that allows air to pass through while capturing virtually all of the water which it then passes down to the surface of the road.

Initial tests by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) showed that the system reduces spray by up to 43 per cent at 56mph. Independent verification by the TRL showed vehicles can also achieve a fuel saving of close to 4 per cent under normal operating conditions.

Morrison sold his fashion chain USC in 2004 for 50m to Sir Tom Hunter.