Orders not enough to keep us in Scotland, says bus firm boss

Bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis may move operations from Scotland to England

The managing director of struggling bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis has said that orders for hundreds of new vehicles may not be sufficient to keep its Scottish sites open.

Speaking to MSPs, Paul Davies said the company would need to win orders for at least 70 new buses this year and 300 next year to keep its Falkirk and Larbert operations going.

But he said this alone may not be enough and he could not commit to keeping the sites open.

The company proposed moving operations to Scarborough in England a fortnight ago.

However, Mr Davies stressed to Holyrood's economy and fair work committee that the Scottish closures were "absolutely not a done deal".

This is the first time that he has spoken publicly since the company announced the consultation.

It is proposing to close Falkirk and cease manufacturing in Larbert with the loss of about 400 jobs.

Manufacturing would be centralised at its Scarborough operation which has the capacity to produce around 1,200 buses a year.

Mr Davies is the president and managing director of Alexander Dennis. He answered questions for about 90 minutes along with the company's marketing director, Debbie McCreath.

The committee convenor Colin Smyth MSP asked him what it would take to keep production in Scotland.

Mr Davies said the issue was demand. He said: "We do not have sufficient volume in the order book to sustain two manufacturing sites in the UK."

He was then asked if the company could give an absolute commitment to keep Falkirk and Larbert open if it secured a sufficient number of new orders.

Mr Davies could not give such a commitment and said there were wider implications for the company to consider.

However, he stressed the closure of Falkirk and Larbert was "absolutely not a done deal. It's a consultation process."

If plans go ahead, the Alexander Dennis site at Camelon, near Falkirk, would close

Unions have called for the 45-day consultation process to be extended - the plants are due to shut for two weeks from Fridau because of the local holiday in Falkirk. The company has not ruled this out.

Mr Davies also justified the plan to consolidate activity in Scarborough rather than Scotland.

He said Scarborough was a much larger site which was capable of producing the company's whole product range. He said there was not much difference between the Scottish sites and Scarborough when it came to productivity and efficiency.

Mr Davies said: "We spent the best past of last year spending £8m transforming Larbert. We would never have made that investment had we expected this situation to have unfolded."

Ms McCreath said Larbert was only designed to build double deck buses while Scarborough could also build single deck buses.

She also said that Larbert was a production line but did not have the complete finishing facilities the company would require.

Bus firm raised in Commons

The company said it first informed the Scottish and UK governments on 23 May that it was considering consolidating work in Scarborough.

The proposal, Mr Davies said, was entirely from the company's executive team in the UK. He also said the company had not made a profit since 2019.

Unions and government ministers have discussed the possibility of a time-limited furlough scheme to allow the company time to win new orders which could be produced at Falkirk and Larbert.

Alexander Dennis was also raised in the House of Commons.

The UK transport minister told the Commons it was really important that governments at all levels support British manufacturing as concern grew over the future of Alexander Dennis in Scotland.

Simon Lightwood MP said his officials have been in close contact with the company over its proposals.

The comments came after Labour's Alloa and Grangemouth MP, Brian Leishman, said changes to policy and legislation could save the jobs.