Alexander Dennis is a British

bus manufacturing Bus manufacturing, a sector of the automotive industry, manufactures buses and coaches. History Bus manufacturing had its earliest origins in carriage building. Other bus manufacturers had their origins in truck manufacturing. Historically, ch ...

company based in

Larbert Larbert ( gd, Lèirbert/Leth-pheairt, sco, Lairbert) is a small town in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town lies in the Forth Valley above the River Carron which flows from the west. Larbert is from the shoreline of the Firth of ...

, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

History

TransBus - the precursor of Alexander Dennis

Mayflower Corporation acquired Scottish bus-makers, Walter Alexander, in August 1995 and English bus-makers,

Dennis Group Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is sometime ...

, in October 1998. In 2000, Mayflower and

Henlys Group Henlys Group PLC was a major London motor distributor and dealer founded in 1917 in London's Great Portland Street. In the 1980s it was taken over by a company associated with Michael Ashcroft then some years later sold to Yorkshire bus manufa ...

merged their British bus-making operations into a 70:30

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with Alexander, Dennis and Henlys'

Plaxton Plaxton is an English builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough. Founded in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton, it became a subsidiary of Alexander Dennis in May 2007. In 2019, the maker was acquired by Canadian bus manufac ...

merged to form TransBus International. The factories concerned employed 3,300 staff in seven places in England (

Anston Anston is a civil parish in South Yorkshire, England, formally known as North and South Anston. The parish of Anston consists of the settlements of North Anston and South Anston, divided by the Anston Brook. History Anston, first recorded as ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

and

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

), Scotland (

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

) and Northern Ireland (

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

). Plaxton's Scarborough operations was planned to close on 3 May 2001 with the loss of 700 jobs blamed on the fall in tourism after the foot and mouth epidemic broke out. Minibus production was moved to the former Walter Alexander factory at Falkirk. However, the Scarborough factory did not close altogether, for 200 staff returned to work after the summer break. Mayflower was valued at £700 million in 1999. By March 2004, that stock market valuation had fallen to £22 million. The following month Mayflower was placed in administration, amid accusations of four years of falsifying crucial company records as to customers' payments to

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

, counting the same income twice. One outcome was that certain members of the Dennis pension fund would receive only 40 per cent of their pensions, though others would continue to receive their full entitlement. TransBus was also placed in administration. TransBus Plaxton was sold to in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

to Brian Davidson and Mike Keane with the support of a private equity group. Alexander Dennis Guildford factory

Formation of Alexander Dennis

Arriva North West 4420 CX58GBY (8611169542)

Truro St Georges Road - Western Greyhound 495 (Y437NHK)

A group of Scottish investors, Noble Grossart, David Murray,

Brian Souter Sir Brian Souter (born 5 May 1954) is a Scottish businessman. With his sister, Ann Gloag, he founded the Stagecoach Group of bus and rail operators. He also founded the bus and coach operator Megabus, the train operating company South West Tra ...

and

Ann Gloag Dame Ann Heron Gloag DBE (née Souter; born 10 December 1942) is a Scottish billionaire businesswoman, activist, and charity campaigner. She is co-founder of the international transport company Stagecoach Group. According to The ''Sunday Times ...

, purchased the business from administrator

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

in May 2004. The former Alexander Belfast plant was not included in the deal and closed. Alexander Dennis ultimately inherited a number of plants from TransBus: the former Alexander factories in

, Scotland; the Dennis factory in

and later the former

factories in

and

. The former Northern Counties factory in

closed in January 2005. Dennis Group had produced a range of both bus and coach chassis and bodies as well as

fire engines The Fire Engines were a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The Fire Engines were an influence on many bands that followed, including Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture, with Meat Whiplash and The Candyskins both taking their names from Fire ...

. Included among its range of chassis were the

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor second ...

and Dennis Trident. They also produced export variants for service in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and other locations. Plaxton made coaches, as well as the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

double decker body (built on Trident,

DAF DB250 The VDL DB250 (originally the DAF DB250) was a twin-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by VDL Bus & Coach. DB250 The DAF DB250 was launched in October 1991 and originally only available with Optare Spectra bodywork with 260 built, mai ...

and

Volvo B7TL The Volvo B7TL is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the United King ...

chassis) and the single decker Pointer body, built on the Dart chassis. In May 2007, Alexander Dennis purchased Plaxton, thus reuniting the two former TransBus businesses. In October 2008, Alexander Dennis signed a deal with ElDorado National to assemble the Enviro500 for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

market. In 2011, Alexander Dennis entered an agreement with

Kiwi Bus Builders Kiwi Bus Builders is a New Zealand bus bodybuilder based in Tauranga. History Kiwi Bus Builders was established in 1993. It has built bus and coach bodies for many operators including Go Bus Transport, NZ Bus and Tranzit Coachlines. In 2011, ...

to assemble its products for the New Zealand market. In May 2012,

NFI Group NFI Group is a Canadian multinational bus manufacturer, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company employs 8,000 people across 50 facilities in nine countries. NFI Group owns Alexander Dennis, ARBOC Specialty Vehicles, Motor Coach Industries, New ...

and Alexander Dennis announced a new joint-venture to design and manufacture medium-duty low-floor bus (or midi bus) for the North American market. New Flyer would handle production and marketing, and Alexander Dennis would handle the engineering and testing. The joint venture was dissolved in 2017. In June 2012, Alexander Dennis acquired Australian bodybuilder

Custom Coaches Custom Bus (previously Custom Coaches) is an Australian bus body builder in St Marys, New South Wales. History Cycle Components Manufacturing Company In 1935 Stanley Hillsdon founded Cycle Components Manufacturing Company (CCMC) in Guildford, ...

. However, in May 2014, Custom Coaches was placed into administration and later sold to a consortium headed by its former owner. In 2015 Alexander Dennis established an assembly plant in

Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

for orders to

Metrolinx Metrolinx is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), which comprises much of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region. Headquartered at Union Sta ...

. In October 2015, Alexander Dennis signed a deal with BYD to body

electric bus An electric bus is a bus that is propelled using electric motors as opposed to an internal combustion engine. Electric buses can store the needed electricity on-board, or be fed continuously from an external source. The majority of buses s ...

es. From 2021, Alexander Dennis will build its own electric chassis.

NFI Group era

In May 2019, Alexander Dennis was sold to

, in a deal worth £320 million. Souter Investments retain an interest, taking shares in NFI Group as part of the transaction. The two companies had been engaged in a joint venture from 2012 until 2017. In August 2020, Alexander Dennis announced plans to cut 650 jobs from its UK manufacturing sites including Falkirk, Scarborough and Guildford, citing a demand drop due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Bus chassis production moved from Guildford to Falkirk. June 2021 saw Alexander Dennis open a base in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, which was described by local media as "boosting economic growth". In July 2021, Alexander Dennis announced plans for construction of a new staff office complex and museum in

Farnborough, Hampshire Farnborough is a town in northeast Hampshire, England, part of the borough of Rushmoor and the Farnborough/Aldershot Built-up Area. Farnborough was founded in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is ...

named ''Trident House''. The centre was expected to be completed in early 2022. Alexander Dennis also entered a business partnership with Australian electric bus supplier Nexport to assemble electric city buses locally, with Australian manufacturing expected to begin in early 2022. In April 2022, Alexander Dennis commenced trials of an autonomous

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC (sold as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200) is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014, as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMC ...

working with

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom. History Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...

, as part of a two-week pilot. Two months later in June, the company formally opened its Trident House complex, while at the same time, launched a refresh of its brand identity.

Products

Buses

Current

Complete buses * Enviro200MMC (2015–present) * Enviro400MMC (2014–present) * Enviro500MMC (2012–present) Bus Bodies * Enviro400 City (2015–present)

Future

* Enviro 100EV * Enviro 400EV * Enviro 500EV

Discontinued

Bus bodies * Pointer (2001–2007, originally made by

, replaced by Enviro200 Dart) * ALX300 (2001-2007, originally Alexander, replaced by Enviro300) * ALX400 (2001-2006, originally Alexander, replaced by

Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident (from which the Enviro400 was de ...

) *

(2001-2005, originally Plaxton, replaced by Enviro400) Complete buses (or chassis/body only) * Enviro200/200H (TransBus, 2003–2007) * Enviro200 Dart (2006–2017, Enviro200H hybrid 2008–2011) * Enviro300 (2001–2015) ** Enviro350H (2010-2013) *

(2005–2018) * Enviro500 (2002–2014) Bus chassis * Dart SLF * Trident 2 Coach chassis *

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

R-Series ''R series'' * Adventure R series – paramotors for gliders * BL R-series engine – gasoline car engines * Dennis R series – coach chassis * Ford R series – busses * International Harvester R series – trucks * Mack R series – heavy-dut ...

Fire engine (Chassis and crew cab)

Fire engine vehicles were built by

and sold under the ''Dennis Fire'' brand until 2007. The bodywork on a majority of the later chassis were built by a neighbouring company, John Dennis Coachbuilders Limited.

Discontinued

Sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

Rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impor ...

Dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...

* RS/SS * DS * DFS

References

External links

*
BUSRide article on TransBus International, with details of its collapse

{{Bus manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Motor vehicle manufacturers of Scotland Hybrid electric bus manufacturers Emergency services equipment makers Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 2004 British companies established in 2004 2004 establishments in Scotland Companies based in Falkirk (council area) 2019 mergers and acquisitions British subsidiaries of foreign companies

History

TransBus - the precursor of Alexander Dennis

Formation of Alexander Dennis

NFI Group era

Products

Buses

Current

Future

Discontinued

Fire engine (Chassis and crew cab)

Discontinued

See also

References

External links