A Devon firm is creating new jobs and investing £500,000 after sealing a major deal with an iconic trailer maker.

C&O Trailers has become an official distributor for the world-renowned Ifor Williams Trailers, supplying its full range from its Pitt Farm site near Cullompton.

The move marks a significant expansion for the C&O Group which already sells agricultural, construction and garden machinery across much of the South West and beyond.

Matt Hellyer, Ifor Willliams Trailers brand manager at C&O Trailers, was delighted with the new deal – describing the North Wales-based firm as “the best in the business”.

He said: “Ifor Williams is the only trailer manufacturer we would consider linking up with because in the trailer world, Ifor Williams are the best at it.

“We were really keen, so it has all worked out really well.

“We are in a great location for what we do because we are literally two or three minutes from the M5, the main road artery in the region.”

Already employing about 70 people across its six sites, the Ifor Williams Trailers distributorship has brought a jobs boost to the C&O Group, which was founded in 1994.

Matt said: “Here at Pitt Farm we have taken two more people on and we are looking at taking a third person on.

“We have taken a service engineer on, a marketing assistant, and are looking to take on a parts and aftersales assistant – so we are nearly doubling our staff here.

“We have about 80 trailers here at Pitt Farm, it’s a fair sized set-up and it has seen us extending the outside space.

“It’s about a £500,000 investment, so it’s a big commitment and investment in terms of personnel and financially but it’s for the long term and for future growth of the business.

“We have got the whole range of Ifor Williams products here – box vans, horse boxes, tipper trailers, plant trailers, car transporters, general duty trailers, the lot.

“We only use Ifor Williams Genuine Parts – I won’t do anything else because I have always been a firm believer whether it’s tractors to trailers, it should always be Genuine Parts.

“I feel it is always a shortcut and potentially dangerous if people use inferior counterfeit parts instead of Genuine Parts.”

Matt said: “We have been operating at Pitt Farm since 2022 and we moved into our purpose-built building in 2024.

“We had built a big enough workshop to accommodate both a tractor workshop and also now a fully operational trailer workshop.

“Supplying Ifor Williams products gives people more choice and our location is really convenient for customers.

“It gives Ifor Williams customers great trust because we are already an established service centre, we’ve got the agricultural mechanics already here.

“And of course Ifor Williams has a huge market share in the trailer industry and are such a trusted expert in this field offering good customer service and good quality products.

“And we add to that our good customer relationships – we like to look after customers, like to support them.

“The distributor deal brings our business into a different dimension as well because we are not just selling tractors now, we are opening up a different customer base.

“So for us it’s brilliant. We have got the skills to sell the trailers and to back them up and we have the best product.”

Dave Robinson, Group Head of Commercial Operations at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: “The C&O Group has a fantastic reputation for terrific customer service and for providing quality products, so they are a perfect fit for Ifor Williams Trailers.

“We pride ourselves on the products we make and the customer service we provide and I know C&O share that same ethos of excellence.”

Ifor Williams Trailers (IWT) has global reach with its market-leading products – made in its six factories in Denbighshire and Flintshire, in North Wales.

They are sold in outlets across Europe and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.

First established in 1958, it is Britain’s largest manufacturer of trailers up to 3500kg gross weight, delivering trailers for a wide variety of purposes.

It invests heavily in research and development to produce the most sought after trailers designed to meet the needs of real people doing real jobs.