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Wrightbus is a Northern Ireland based bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was later run by his son William Wright, until it was acquired in 2019 by British businessman
Jo Bamford Jo Bamford (born Joseph Cyril Edward Bamford in December 1977) is a British businessman and heir to the multi-billion pound JCB family fortune. After working in the family-owned JCB (company), JCB company, he founded a green hydrogen investment fu ...
.


History

Wrightbus was founded in 1946 as Robert Wright & Son Coachbuilders. In its early years it rebodied lorries. In 1978, the company released its first aluminium-structured bus bodywork.Wright's breakthrough into the mainstream bus bodybuilding sector came in the early 1990s. The Handybus was a midibus body offered on a variety of chassis but was more successful than the emerging Dennis Dart in attracting reasonably-sized orders from a variety of operators including
London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...
, Go Ahead Northern,
Ulsterbus Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink, the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, which also ...
and
Citybus (Belfast) Metro is the trading name for bus company Citybus in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a subsidiary of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, within the common management structure of Translink, along with Ulsterbus and Northern Ireland ...
. This was followed by a move into the full-size single deck market with the
Endeavour Endeavour or endeavor may refer to: People Fictional characters * Endeavour Morse, central character of the ''Inspector Morse'' novels by Colin Dexter * Endeavor, the hero name for the character Enji Todoroki from the anime series ''My Hero A ...
which was fitted to
Dennis Javelin The Dennis Javelin (later known as the Alexander Dennis Javelin) was an underfloor-engined bus and coach chassis manufactured by Dennis and later Alexander Dennis. It was unveiled in 1986 and acted more or less as a modern replacement for the d ...
, Leyland Tiger and
Scania K93 Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne C ...
chassis, and enabled Wright to develop its highly successful Endurance body which competed with the
Alexander Strider The Alexander Strider was a single-decker bus body produced in Scotland by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders between 1993 and 1997. The body was available on Dennis Lance, Volvo B10B, Volvo B10M and Scania L113 chassis. In 1993, the body was modif ...
and
Northern Counties Paladin The Northern Counties Paladin, also badged as the Plaxton Paladin towards the end of production, is a step-entrance single-decker bus body built by Northern Counties of Wigan, UK, between 1991 and 1998. The replacements for the Paladin are th ...
for orders on
Volvo B10B The Volvo B10B was a rear-engined step deck single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1992 and 2001. The first prototype were built in 1990, but the B10B wasn't launched until the 1992 Geneva Motor Show. It superseded the Leyland Ly ...
and Scania N113CRB chassis. Other Wright products introduced in this period included two Mercedes-Benz-based products, the O405 based Cityranger and the OH1416 based Urbanranger. The latter was launched around the time bus operators in the UK began switching to low floor chassis and consequently only attracted a handful of orders. However, Wright had become well established in the bus bodybuilding sector by then, and was able to exploit the opportunities the low-floor revolution would offer it from the mid-1990s onwards.


Low-floor

In 1993, the Pathfinder on low floor
Dennis Lance SLF The Dennis Lance was a single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Dennis between 1991 and 2000, replacing the Dennis Falcon. Its low floor variant, the Dennis Lance SLF (Super Low Floor) was built between 1993 and 1996. Between 1995 and 1998, De ...
and Scania N113CRL chassis was unveiled.The Axcess-Ultralow was introduced in 1995 and offered on the
Scania L113 The Scania L113 was a step entrance and low entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Scania in Sweden between 1989 and 1998. It is a low entry compartment to the low floor N113. Design The L113 was largely a cross between the N113 a ...
chassis. At this time it was selling in reasonable numbers to UK bus operators, but unlike other bodybuilders who could only offer the L113 with step-entrance bodies, Wright modified it by removing the middle section of the chassis and thus offered UK bus operators one of the first mainstream low-floor body/chassis combinations. A major customer for the Axcess-Ultralow was FirstGroup, taking approximately 240. Next up was the Volvo B10L based
Liberator Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to: Literature * ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles * ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov * ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...
introduced at the end of 1995: National Express ordered 120 in 1997. Next came the
Renown Renown may refer to: * Celebrity, fame and broad public recognition Companies * Renown (company), a Japanese clothing brand * Renown Health, a healthcare network in Nevada, US * Renown Pictures, a British film company Transport Ships * ''Renown ...
body built on the
Volvo B10BLE The Volvo B10BLE was a rear-engined low-entry single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden between 1993 and 2004. The first prototypes were built in 1992, but mass production started in 1993, only a year after the high-floor B10B. It ...
which went on to become the standard bus of the
Blazefield Group Transdev Blazefield is a bus group, which operates local and regional bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, England. Formed in August 1991, the group has been a subsidiary of French-based operato ...
. Production was stopped when the B10BLE was replaced by the Volvo B7L on the new Wright Eclipse (now Wright Eclipse Metro), which due to its vertical rear engine wasn't popular with many operators. Nevertheless, Wright did not lose custom and many operators such as
Ulsterbus Ulsterbus is a public transport operator in Northern Ireland and operates bus services outside Belfast. It is part of Translink, the brand name for the subsidiary operating companies of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, which also ...
switched to the incline-engined Scania L94UB, on a similar Wright Solar body. Another bodywork which resembles the current Solar/
Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...
range is the
Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...
, which was bodied on the
MAN A22 The MAN Lion's City is a range of low-floor and low-entry public buses built by German truck and bus manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus (previously MAN Nutzfahrzeuge) since 1996 primarily for the European market, but is also available in chassis-only ...
full low-floor single-deck chassis.


Since 2000

The most distinctive Wright product is the New Routemaster London bus, introduced in February 2012 as an update of the AEC Routemaster. Production ended in 2017 when the 1,000th left the production line. The first Wright Eclipse Gemini double-decker was built on the
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 in 2001. A similarly styled bus entered service with Arriva London in August 2003 as the Wright Pulsar Gemini on the VDL DB250 chassis. Large operators of Gemini-bodied buses include Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead Group, Lothian Buses and National Express. In 2016, the Wright SRM was introduced on the Volvo B5LH.London launch for new Wrightbus SRM on Volvo B5LHArchived copy
''Bus & Coach Professional'' 18 March 2016
Since May 2013, Wrightbus has also built its own chassis, the StreetLite single-decker and StreetDeck double decker. However, they still continue to produce bodywork for the Volvo B5TL, Volvo B5LH and Volvo B8RLE.


Zero emission

Wrightbus has followed two strategies towards zero emission: battery powered and
fuel-cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requi ...
(powered by hydrogen) vehicles. The operator Go Ahead has placed orders for fuel-cell buses for its Metrobus and
Brighton & Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
fleets, and
Translink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...
in Northern Ireland made an initial order for 38 battery vehicles.


Administration and acquisition by Jo Bamford

Between September and October 2019, Wrightbus entered administration with the suspension of 1,300 jobs at their factory. At the time of administration they were £60m in debt. On 11 October 2019, a deal was reached in principle between
Jo Bamford Jo Bamford (born Joseph Cyril Edward Bamford in December 1977) is a British businessman and heir to the multi-billion pound JCB family fortune. After working in the family-owned JCB (company), JCB company, he founded a green hydrogen investment fu ...
(son of
Anthony Bamford Anthony Paul Bamford, Baron Bamford, (born 23 October 1945) is a British billionaire businessman who is chairman of J. C. Bamford (JCB). He succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, as chairman and managing director of the company in 1975, at ...
, chairman of the construction equipment manufacturer
JCB JCB may refer to: * JCB (company), a British manufacturer of heavy industrial and agricultural vehicles * JCB Co., Ltd., originally Japan Credit Bureau, a credit card company based in Tokyo, Japan * JCB Prize, a literary award sponsored by the c ...
) and the Wright family for the land used by the factory, a sticking point in negotiations to sell the firm. A deal was made with the administrators eleven days later, with Jo Bamford's Bamford Bus Company concluding a takeover of the company. Since the takeover of Wrightbus, Bamford has been committed to creating a market for hydrogen buses with a reconfigured StreetDeck that is powered by hydrogen. In 2020, Bamford said he planned to build 3,000 buses of this type by 2024.


Exports

In 1997, an order for 25
Wright Crusader The Wright Crusader was a single-decker bus body built on Dennis Dart SLF, Volvo B6LE and Volvo B6BLE chassis by Wrightbus between 1995 and 2002. First generation (1995–2000) The Wright Crusader was introduced in 1995, replacing the Wright H ...
-bodied Dennis Darts was delivered to Australian operator ACTION. Between 2003 and 2006, Hong Kong operator Kowloon Motor Bus received a total of 164 Wrightbus three-axle double-deckers; 100 of them were on Volvo Super Olympian and 64 of them were on Volvo B9TL chassis. In 2009, Kowloon Motor Bus had ordered a total of 291 buses, including one demonstrator with two-axle, and all buses were in service in 2012. In 2010, the first of 450 Wright Eclipse Gemini 2-bodied Volvo B9TLs was delivered to
SBS Transit SBS Transit Limited (SBST or just SBS) () is a multi-modal public transport operator in Singapore operating bus and rail services. With a majority of its shares owned by Singaporean multinational transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro Corporation ...
, Singapore till end 2012."SBS Transit orders 415 more Geminis" ''
Buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
'' issue 714 September 2014 page 19
In 2011, Wrightbus International was established. A contract was awarded by SBS Transit for 565 Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs and delivered since January 2013 till June 2015. In November 2012, a contract for 50 Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvos was awarded by Kowloon Motor Bus. These are being sent in knock-down kit (ckd) form from Ireland and assembled in China and followed by another 85, including two 12.8-metre-long demonstrators. In September 2013, Wrightbus entered into a partnership with
Daimler Buses Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...
to manufacture buses in Chennai, India. In March 2014, orders were secured from Hong Kong operators Citybus and New World First Bus for 51 Volvo B9TLs. These are being sent in CKD form from Northern Ireland and assembled in Malaysia. In July 2014, SBS Transit ordered a further 415 Eclipse Gemini 2-bodied Volvo B9TLs which will be delivered from August 2015 till 2017, increasing the total to 1,430 by 2017.


Criticism

When Deloitte was appointed in 2019 as the company's administrators, the company was £60 million in debt, with £38.1 million owed to the Bank of Ireland. It was said that they had insufficient assets to pay off its creditors so had the company been liquidated, they would not have been paid. During the six years prior to Wrightbus going into administration, it was reported that Jeff Wright, the owner of the company, had donated £15m to a church he had founded in 2007, Green Pastures Church. This led to protests on 29 September 2019 which were joined by many of the company's former workers, including members of the Wright family.


Products


Current models


Former


Single deck


Double deck


References


External links

* * {{Bus manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Ballymena Bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom Hybrid electric bus manufacturers Manufacturing companies of Northern Ireland 1946 establishments in Northern Ireland British companies established in 1946 Brands of Northern Ireland