A specialist trailer manufacturer is bouncing back after seeing its turnover fall by half last year at the height of the recession.

W Trailer Co, of Keighley, which has developed new eco-friendly trailers to help freight companies reduce their carbon footprint through increased fuel efficiency, is again seeing a steady flow of orders, including from overseas.

Orders in the first three months of its financial year picked up to around £700,000, including a contract to produce the first double-deck trailers for the Middle East and another from the Czech Republic.

W Trailers is also negotiating potential orders in the United States and has clinched business in Kuwait.

In 2008 the firm’s new management team snared £600,000 of funding which secured jobs and provided working capital to enable the introduction of advanced manufacturing processes.

Development of new products continued, but trading conditions deteriorated, particularly in the UK, where orders more or less dried up.

Managing director Graeme Wilson said the company would be drawing on residual funding of around £100,000 from Partnership Investment Finance, which has supported businesses in Objective 2 areas, including the Bradford district, and provided the bulk of finance in 2008.

This would enable W Trailers to keep its 40 or so staff and work on product development.

These include its Eco Urban trailer which has an aerodynamic design with a double-deck front section. which allows greater carrying capacity, but with reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions.

This first such trailer in the UK was recently sold to national parcel company APC Overnight. The vehicle is being used to ferry parcels at night from South Wales to APC’s parcel hub in the Midlands. During the day, the special 10m trailer will be used for deliveries into city and town centres in South Wales.

Mr Wilson said the new shorter aerodynamic trailers would be the way forward for urban deliveries and were replacing traditional rigid-bodied trucks.

W Trailers has also launched and patented its new curtained trailer called Curtain-Clear. This allows curtains to be drawn quickly and secured safely at the rear of the trailer to allow unrestricted loading and unloading.

Mr Wilson said: “We are not a mass manufacturer but focus on custom-built trailers of various types and are constantly looking to develop new and innovative products to keep ourselves at the forefront of the market.

“Last year was horrendous and we took a major hit, with turnover down by around 50 per cent. While things have steadied, it’s still very difficult. We remain confident, however, that our new eco-friendly trailers will hit the spot and that orders will recover in 2010.

“We’ve had some significant successes in the first three months but will have to keep working hard to push ourselves forward.”

W Trailers operates from a purpose-built 40,000sq ft factory and is run by the second generation of the Wilson family, who have been in the sector for more than 25 years.