How London bus manufacturer Wrightbus is creating thousands of ‘future-proof’ jobs at a former cigarette factory

At a time when the corporate and investment worlds are busy evangelizing the potential of artificial intelligence, bus manufacturing may not be the first industry that comes to mind when thinking about cutting-edge technology.

But on the former site of a JTI Gallaher cigarette factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, a British company is rapidly developing world-first technology, creating thousands of skilled jobs and aiming for global expansion.

“It’s very busy here,” CEO Jean-Marc Wales says of the 100-acre site that suffered 800 job losses when tobacco manufacturing ceased in 2017.

‘We have gone from producing eight buses a week at the beginning of last year to 22 a week today; Next year we will be 26, it is a different factory and it is full of life.

“We are about to introduce a night shift on the main assembly line, so we will be working around the clock to decarbonize here.”

Wrightbus is reborn

If you have traveled by bus or coach in the UK at any time over the last 75 years, there is a reasonable chance that you have used a vehicle manufactured by Wrightbus.

From its origins as a bus supplier to the County Tyrone Education Committee in the 1950s, Wrightbus was behind London’s iconic ‘flex bus’ in 2001 and the ‘Boris bus’ a decade later.

The group was a key supplier to local authorities and suppliers across the UK for most of its existence, before becoming insolvent in 2019.

Wrightbus, which was later saved under the ambitious ownership of businessman Jo Bamford, is now under the leadership of a chief executive with an impressive track record of turnaround stories.

Boss Wales was appointed last year thanks to success in the motor industry, including leaders at Peugeot and Lotus.

“Wrightbus was in a much better situation than when I joined Lotus in 2014,” laughs Wales.

‘Lotus was making more losses than revenue per year when I joined. When I left and we sold the company to Geely three years later, the company had double-digit EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

“But what all of those roles have in common is scaling a business, preparing it for future growth and returning it to profitability.”

World news in achieving zero emissions

A reborn Wrightbus has fueled rapid expansion with the UK’s development of zero-emission vehicles, the first of their kind, leading to it being named in Britain’s 100 fastest-growing companies in the Growth Index. of this year.

The group boasts the world’s first double-decker hydrogen bus and its single-decker equivalent, as well as “the world’s most efficient double-decker electric open-top,” the latter of which readers will be able to recognize among the hundreds of tourist routes surrounding Great Britain. cities.

“Depending on the year, our annual growth rate has been between 50 and 80 percent,” says Gales.

“We are now the number one manufacturer of zero emission buses in the UK and Europe – we are probably one of the fastest growing large manufacturing companies in the UK.”

It adds that a strong focus on cost management will see the group firmly profitable by 2024, with Wrightbus “aiming for more than half a billion revenues this year, up from a record of around £300 million last year”.

“And we will put a substantial amount of that £500m into research and development,” says Wales.

Having built only 274 buses in 2021, Wrightbus hopes to exceed 1,000 buses this year.

This has been made possible with additional hiring, and Wrightbus’ employee numbers are expected to grow from 1,000 when Wales joined to more than 2,000 next year, from a current level of around 1,800.

“We also have 50 apprentices and we will add 80,” says the French executive, an engineer by profession.

‘And there’s no age limit for that, so anyone who wants a career change or a new industry can join us.

“These are skilled, future-ready jobs we create in the UK, and every job here creates three jobs in the supply chain as we source from 47 counties across the country.”

Wrightbus bets on hydrogen

Of the buses sold by Wrightbus this year, 80 percent are powered by electric batteries, while traditional hydrogen and diesel engines account for 10 percent each.

The company expects the share of diesel vehicles to decline over time, as its customers phase out the technology, and the share of hydrogen vehicles to increase.

But why hydrogen?

“Frankly, our electricity grids are limited: if everyone in the UK started charging our electric cars and buses from tomorrow, we wouldn’t be able to boil a cup of tea,” explains Wales.

‘The network is already notoriously overloaded. And obviously hydrogen is an excellent source of energy that can also be stored.’

The technology also allows for longer journeys than is currently feasible with electric equivalents.

Wales says: “On longer routes you can’t travel on electricity at all – as soon as you travel over 200 miles a day it becomes difficult.” And I know some people deny it.

‘But if you have a coach going from Birmingham to London and back, for example, you can’t just stop and charge for two hours.

“Hydrogen can be refueled in a matter of minutes, so for certain applications hydrogen is the only source we see – that’s why we are developing a hydrogen coach that will hit the market in mid-2026.”

International expantion

Just this week, the group sold 46 hydrogen buses to a German transport provider in the city of Cottbus, Brandenburg.

It is not the first deal Wrightbus has made in the country, which is boosting trade with a €350m (£300m) subsidy scheme to support renewable hydrogen production.

And Wrightbus is setting its sights even further in its efforts to drive future growth.

Wales says: ‘In recent months we have won five major European tenders.

‘We have a factory in Malaysia, which next year will start producing a bus for Hong Kong and Singapore.

‘Us [previously] It had a good market share in Hong Kong and Singapore, but we are going back to those markets with a new three-axle double-decker electric vehicle.

‘It will be a very strong future business for Wrightbus in that region, from where we will expand to Singapore to sell and build there. From there we can ship to Australia and New Zealand, which are also traditional locations for our buses.’