ADL is AOK

If anyone thinks there’s a suspicious link between Stagecoach’s 13 February £35mil bus order and manufacturer Alexander Dennis Ltd, they need to think again.

Tempting it might be for some to suggest that Stagecoach would place the lion’s share of its £50mil order with ADL, wouldn’t it, this is not so, in spite of Stagecoach boss Brian Souter investing his own money to rescue the rump of collapsed Transbus/Mayflower, now ADL. The consortium, which also included Souter’s sister Ann Gloag, paid £90m in May 2004, four days after fellow Transbus stablemate Plaxton was bought by its management. Souter and Gloag hold 40 per cent of ADL.

ADL has to trade in the real world. ADL steadfastly maintains its company is fully transparent. Further, Stagecoach’s properly audited files state that Souter does not involve himself in vehicle procurement, keeping his interests separate. Being anything other than ethical could so easily jeopardise orders from others – and that’s a huge potential market.

Souter’s money might’ve saved ADL but it needs orders to continue its R&D & product development; to ensure that a part of the British auto industry doesn’t follow its forbears as impoverished or worse; to ensure that bus manufacturing as a whole retains, expands and promotes skills; and importantly so that the operating industry benefits from healthy competition among new bus suppliers.

Just one year after its re-formation in January 2005, ADL is in better shape than Transbus ever was. Considering that the Transbus collapse caused a major hiatus within the operating industry – disrupted orders, depleted stock, disappointed purchasers, uncertainty – ADL has overcome many of the hurdles it faced a year ago.

Much of ADL’s renewed success revolves around the stylish £150,000 Enviro400 double deck, a design that probably will set the theme for future single decks. It certainly makes up for disappointing orders for its single deck Enviro300. The Enviro400 seats nine more passengers downstairs than any of its rivals, important for passengers (especially elderly people) who prefer the lower saloon to the upper deck. There are reported to be orders for some 200, the first being 14 out of 28 for Metroline, due at the end of the year. Stagecoach has ordered 130 and Go Ahead some 40.

ADL has also restructured, reorganised and created some 100 new jobs at Falkirk, while integrating its machining and kitting at that plant. However, the former Northern Counties bodybuilding works at Wigan closed last month, after finishing orders for the President SLF double deck bus body. Northern Counties as a name was dropped in 1999, 80 years after the company was founded.

Stagecoach’s £50mil order, including replacements for its Traction Group subsidiaries, comprises:

 30 ADL Trident ALX400 double decks
 130 ADL Trident Enviro400 double decks
 165 ADL Dart Pointer midibuses
 13 ADL Enviro300 single decks
 95 Optare Solo minibuses
 31 Plaxton Profile/Volvo B7R accessible coaches