SCOTTISH bus builder Alexander Dennis has revealed it is on track for record turnover of £600 million this year, and a sharp increase in profits, while unveiling major new overseas orders.
The manufacturer, which employs about 1,000 people in Scotland, said it was projecting a rise in turnover of about 20 per cent this year. It clocked up turnover of £502m in 2014.
It is understood that underlying operating profits for 2015 could come in at around £25m, up from £18.7m in the year to December 2014, on the back of the rise in turnover.
Alexander Dennis’s buoyant trading and new orders are good news for its 2,500-strong workforce.
A company spokesman said that the performance “underpins our employment in the UK and elsewhere”.
About 850 of Alexander Dennis’s employees work at its factory at Camelon in Falkirk. Other Scottish-based staff are employed at the company’s head office and product development site at nearby Larbert.
The company employs about 1,000 people in total at its sites in Yorkshire and Surrey. It also has about 500 staff working overseas, and the spokesman noted that about a further 1,500 people worked on Alexander Dennis contracts in overseas manufacturing partnerships.
Alexander Dennis has established overseas manufacturing operations in China, Malaysia, New Zealand and North America.
However, the company spokesman said: “No matter where we are in the world, what you might call the brains of the business, the technology development, is all happening in Scotland, hybrid bus technology and electric buses.
“We have something like 250 very skilled engineers keeping us at the forefront of the industry.”
The spokesman noted that Stagecoach co-founder Sir Brian Souter’s Highland Global Transport investment vehicle has a stake of about 55 per cent in Alexander Dennis. Edinburgh merchant bank Noble Grossart has a holding of around 35 per cent, with Alexander Dennis chief executive Colin Robertson owning 10 per cent of the bus builder.
Mr Robertson said that Alexander Dennis would, this year, build more than 2,600 buses.
He declared that these vehicles would be split equally between the UK and export markets.
Mr Robertson added: “All of that will push our turnover up from £500m in 2014 to £600m this year and, similarly, I expect to see a significant increase in our underlying profitability, a large part of which will fund our ongoing £15m investment programme.”
The Alexander Dennis chief executive, who was speaking at the Coach & Bus Live exhibition in Birmingham, also unveiled a £250m deal to design and manufacture up to 400 “SuperLo” double-decker buses for the Canadian market.
Mr Robertson also unveiled Alexander Dennis’s first order to produce double-decker buses for use in Continental Europe.
This order for 19 double-deckers has come from Swiss transport operator PostAuto, which runs more than 2,200 vehicles.
Alexander Dennis views this order as a crucial step in opening up the mainland European market.
Mr Robertson said: “This is an interesting development that again opens up new market opportunities, particularly as PostAuto is constantly increasing its presence in Swiss cities, conurbations, and neighbouring territories.”
He also told his audience that Arriva London had placed an order for 19 of the company’s new Enviro400H City buses, adding that these vehicles would go into service later this year.
This vehicle is being targeted at the London market initially, and Mr Robertson said “positive discussions” were under way with a number of other major bus operators
Alexander Dennis said that it would deliver 900 double-decker buses to Hong Kong this year, securing 80 per cent of the market.
It added that it was also in the process of introducing a 120 buses, a mixture of single and double-decker vehicles, to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Alexander Dennis noted that it had, in New Zealand, had a “major breakthrough” following a government decision to relax weight restrictions on trucks and buses.
The company added that this had resulted in it winning orders for 39 high-capacity Enviro500 double-decker buses.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel