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TWST: Can we begin with a brief historical sketch of Wagon(London: WAGN.L), to bring us up to date with the company as it is today?

Mr Brayshaw: I joined the business five years ago, when it was actually a mini-conglomerate with a number of different businesses in different countries, not all of them very closely related. Since then, we have focused on the automotive industry, and the Group you see today results from a decision to divest non-core companies and make a series of acquisitions – mainly in continental Europe. The last stage of that process was in July of this year, when we divested our storage equipment division. Wagon is now solely focused on the auto industry. We design, engineer and manufacture automotive body structures, with a particular specialization in lightweight materials – for example, aluminum.

TWST: What’s the breakdown of turnover geographically?

Mr Brayshaw: In business share terms, and by turnover, I suppose about 75% in continental Europe, roughly 20% in the UK, and 5% in the US … and of that total, about half is in France, which is our major region. We have 18 manufacturing plants, and six engineering centers, and they’re spread across the whole of Europe, and in the US.

TWST: What’s on the business agenda in the US?

Mr Brayshaw: Well, we have a major design center in Detroit, working for two of the three OEMs, doing design services. And we have quite a small manufacturing plant, also in Detroit. One of our strategic goals is to expand our business in the US, and we would very much like to find the opportunity to sell our design-and-build capability to the US market.

TWST: Can you provide a quick description of the business environment and your strengths in the space?

Mr Brayshaw: One of the things we have done over the last two years is bought ourselves an engineering services provider, together with our manufacturing business, and created a design-and-build capability. We can actually design, engineer and manufacture a body structure, which is really quite unusual. And across that spectrum of skills, with the other axis being the various regions in which we compete, we find the competitors are different in each of the areas. Many people think of our industry as quite consolidated, and yet actually, it is very fragmented. So, we have a whole series of competitors, depending on whereabouts we are.

TWST: How would you summarize the next 12-24 months for the company? What are the direction and the objectives you’ve laid out?

Mr Brayshaw: We’ve got a significant order book of new programs that we’re currently engineering, so the immediate task is to bring that whole series of new projects into production and make them work efficiently. So, we’ve got quite a strong focus on that. The second priority is the integration of engineering services and manufacturing, and selling our integrated design-and-build capability.

TWST: What are the three or four key points about Wagon that investors should take into consideration?

Mr Brayshaw: I would say, first of all, that we are now developing a new business through the integration of engineering services and manufacturing, allowing us to offer design-and-build capability. The second thing is this focus on lightweight structures, particularly aluminum, where we are the independent market leader by some distance. Thirdly, our pan-European base gives us some degree of hedge against the volatility of individual markets. Those three things, I think, position us well for the future.