The Darwen Group was a

bus manufacturer 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, ...

located in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

, Lancashire, England. The company originated from the purchase of

East Lancashire Coachbuilders East Lancashire Coachbuilders Limited was a manufacturer of bus bodies and carriages founded in 1934 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The company went into administration for a short while in August 2007, before being bought by Darwen Group a ...

who went into administration in August 2007. After a series of developments, in June 2008 Darwen performed a reverse takeover in fellow bus manufacturer

Optare Switch Mobility (originally called Optare) is an English bus manufacturer based in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of Indian company Ashok Leyland. The company would be responsible for the EV operations of the group with ...

, with the Darwen name disappearing.

History

Darwen rose from the ashes of

in August 2007, after they went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

- Darwen saved them the next day. Darwen went about reorganising the business, making a number of redundancies and rebranding main bus side of the business as Darwen East Lancs, the repair arm as Darwen North West. The current East Lancs products at the time were continued by Darwen, with new brand names. This was followed by the acquisition of Leyland Product Developments in November 2007, which was rebranded as Darwen LPD. Further progress came in February 2008, when the parent company Darwen Holdings floated on

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

. In a further development, the Darwen Group owner Roy Stanley set up ''Jamesstan Investments'', and on 12 March 2008 the

Group was purchased. In June 2008 the decision was made for Darwen to perform a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

on Optare under Jamesstan Investments. The Darwen name was dropped in favour of Optare's.Bus and Coach.com
Roy Stanley company buys Optare, 12 March 2008 The company has also announced its intention to develop integral buses, with a prototype due by June 2008. It intends to develop both hybrid and

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engi ...

versions, the hybrid in partnership with Enova. On 14 July 2008 the company was renamed Optare UK Ltd as a part of the reverse takeover of Optare.

Products

Single-decker

* Darwen Esteem Built for the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart,

Scania N94UB The Scania 4-series low floor city bus and coach range was introduced by Scania in 1997 as a successor to the 3-series bus range. The 4-series bus range was first presented in September 1996, when the integral low-floor city bus OmniCity was ...

Alexander Dennis Enviro300 The Alexander Dennis Enviro300 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro300) is a light-weight full-size single-decker bus that was built by Alexander Dennis and its predecessor TransBus International between 2001 and 2015. The design was the fir ...

and

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

12.240 chassis. A former East Lancs product, previously known as the East Lancs Esteem. It is the successor to the East Lancs Myllennium. * Darwen Panaire This is a modified open-top Esteem. It is the only open-top single-decker bus offered in the UK although no orders have yet been taken.

Double-decker

* Darwen OmniDekka Built for the Scania N230UD/N270UD chassis. A former East Lancs product, known as the

East Lancs Omnidekka The East Lancs OmniDekka (later sold as the Darwen OmniDekka and Optare OmniDekka) is a double-decker bus built for sale in the UK market, introduced by East Lancashire Coachbuilders in 2003. Originally built on Scania N94UD chassis at Euro 3, ...

. It is a replacement for the ELC Scania N94UD based model. * Darwen Olympus Built for the

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been su ...

Alexander Dennis 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 d ...

and Scania N230UD/N270UD chassis. A former East Lancs product, known as the

East Lancs Olympus The Optare Olympus (introduced in 2006 as the East Lancs Olympus, and sold as the Darwen Olympus between 2007 and 2008) is a double-decker bus built by Optare. It could be built as a body available on Alexander Dennis Enviro400, Volvo B9TL or ...

. It is a modified version of the double-decker Myllennium with the same enhancements as the Esteem. * Darwen Visionaire Built so far on the

chassis. A former East Lancs product, known as the East Lancs Visionaire. It is essentially an open top version of the Olympus.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Blackburn British companies established in 2007 Companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market 2007 establishments in England Manufacturing companies established in 2007 Switch Mobility