Bradford-based manufacturer Jiffy Trucks is collaborating with Citroen on a new pick-up van.

The UK's largest manufacturer of stainless steel food delivery trucks, which produces hand-built vehicles at its engineering works in Thackley, has signed a contract with the French car-maker to design the new Citroen Berlingo.

After five months of negotiations, design and testing the first models have rolled off the production line and will hit the roads this week.

This is the first time Jiffy Trucks has collaborated with another manufacturer on a pick-up van. It is a major step forward for the company, founded 25 years ago by managing director Malcolm Grainge.

Mr Grainge and his wife started off by selling sandwiches from a catering van in factory yards. Today the company has a 15-strong workforce at its base in Windhill Old Road, making a variety of catering trucks.

The company was approached by Citroen earlier this year to design the new Berlingo platform cab.

Jiffy Trucks sales manager Charles Cooper said: "This is a great contract for us because there is a lot of sales potential. Inquiries are coming in from dealers across the country and the first fleet order for 40 vehicles has been forwarded to us.

"It takes about a week to produce one of the vehicles, but because they are hand-built, the quality is there.

"We were keen to expand and decided to take the bull by the horns and go for this deal. We've taken a Citroen chassis and designed the rest of the truck from scratch.

A Citroen spokesman said the workers in Bradford had been "very slick in producing a unique vehicle".

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.