Edwin Richard Foden had designed the first Foden steam wagon on steel tyres, but in the early 1930s, with the economy in recession and insurers reluctant to cover steam boilers, he was convinced that the future was diesel. The Foden board disagreed, so he resigned, together with his son Dennis, and with two former Foden colleagues, including chief engineer Ernest Sherratt, he built the first ERF diesel lorry in 1933, numbering the first chassis 63, his age. ERF stood for his initials.
From the beginning ERF made only chassis and cabs and bought in engines from Gardner, gearboxes from David Brown and axles from Kirkstall Forge, a policy that served it throughout its life. Its first cab was styled by the Sandbach coachbuilder John Henry Jennings, who also provided space to build the lorries, and later engines came from Cummins, Rolls-Royce, Perkins and Caterpillar. ERF was never a giant: its home sales reached just 1,083 trucks in 1981. In some export markets it was badged Western Star.
Western Star bought ERF in 1996, and MAN bought it in 2000 and moved production to Middlewich. The Middlewich factory closed in March 2002, and MAN stopped supplying ERF-badged trucks in July 2007.
