Wrightbus

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Wrightbus

(26/09/2019 13:06)buses7675 Wrote:  Very thorough post there Gilmoss 0324! Really good to read that.

Worth remembering too that TransBus International had a similar fate back in 2004 and if you now look at Alexander Dennis they are the strongest bus manufacturer in the UK so you can come back from 'the dead' so to speak. Maybe with a totally different management Wrightbus could do similar.

Also of note, ADL did have a factory in Ireland, the Alexander Belfast one, which lasted to around 2006 I believe so it is interesting that some say one reason ADL sales are poor in Ireland is due to it having less of a service network etc but they must have had something up to that point if they were still building ALX400s over there then.

Thanks Steve.

Yeah know it was a long post but pretty much it's how I've seen Wright lose it's way recently. I hope like Optare and as you mention Transbus/ADL they can find some way to survive even if it means Wrightbus as such becomes a part of another company. This might mean Wrightbus is no more but if it keeps the business and jobs in Ballymena then great.

If Wright can survive I think they need to re-think the product range and improve the quality. What they may need to do is simply go back to being a body on chassis maker although even for ADL things have moved more integral these days and Optare have been down that route for a long time. It's not as simple as it was in the 90's for operators to specify a Dart, B10B or Olympian on different manufacturers bodies these days.

Not sure if BYD or BCI may be the best partners to achieve this unless they want to nick some Wright designs/ideas but it's not impossible that Optare or ADL could enter the ring in order to have increased capacity from Ballymena for their designs. ADL particularly could use that as a means to target the Irish market again - interesting that Dublin Bus are looking over the Enviro400 NMC Hybrid at the moment too.