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Old September 25th 19, 11:43 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Recliner[_4_] Recliner[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2019
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Default Boris's bus related jinxes continue

On Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:42:35 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 07:24:09 on Wed, 25
Sep 2019, Recliner remarked:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:13:12 on Sun, 22 Sep 2019,
Roland Perry remarked:

"One of Northern Ireland's biggest employers faces a crunch week as
Wrightbus, which employs 1,400 staff, attempts to stave off collapse by
securing a last-minute rescue deal.

Mounting financial problems at the Ballymena-based company have left it
looking for a buyer, with the Chinese engineering group Weichai and a
firm led by the JCB heir, Jo Bamford, understood to be the suitors in
talks. However, local MP Ian Paisley told the BBC on Friday he
understood talks with the two potential buyers had failed to reach a
conclusion."

‘Administration now inevitable,’ says Paisley:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49818156

A week to find a buyer. Probably this month's wages bill which has
pushed them over the edge.



I hadn't realised that the UK bus market was in such decline:

"Latest accounts show that the Wrightbus group lost £1.7m on a turnover of
£227m in 2017.

But its financial situation has deteriorated since then.

It made two rounds of redundancies last year with 95 jobs going in February
and June, which it said reflected continued low levels of demand for new
buses in the UK market.

The UK has traditionally been Wrightbus's biggest market but it has been
contracting for over two years.

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show
that in the second quarter of this year new bus and coach registrations are
down 30% compared to the same period last year.

That marks the tenth quarter in a row that new registrations have
declined."


We are on the verge of a recession, the future looks uncertain, and your
fleet is probably fully compliant with latest regs. Why as an operator
would you start buying new buses?

Of the bigger bus operators, only Go-Ahead are doing well, with both
First and Stagecoach in trouble.


I suppose I'm biased by being in London, where there always seem to be
new buses