Darwen to Morph to Optare

Less than a week after Darwen was celebrating the largest single order by an independent bus operator so far this year, comes news that Darwen is to take over Optare.

We’re used to hearing of consolidation in the operating industry and yet consolidation continues in the manufacturing sector, too.

Darwen Holdings is to change its name to Optare, following an agreement announced yesterday morning to acquire Jamesstan Investments (the holding compnay that bought Optare). There’s already a link between Darwen and Optare and, as we felt in March, the move comes as no surprise. The main backer of Jamesstan was Roy Stanley, who formed the Darwen Group and hybrid-specialists Tanfield Group, and is the Darwen chairman.

Also back in March, we wondered whether a Darwen/Optare move would be good or bad news. For both manufacturers, there’s certainly much to gain by it. Aside from the usual economies of scale, there’s little current overlap between the two product ranges. Optare tends to concentrate on the smaller vehicle end of the market; Darwen’s products include up to double deck designs. Long term, expect Darwen products to rely less on chassis manufacturers, in favour of Optare’s integral solutions. And the stronger business will help finance more ambitious hybridised solutions at a time when erratic oil-based fuel prices prevail, yet hybrid technology otherwise remains uncertain with, for example, troubles at Traction Technology.

The significant £1.7m Darwen 10-vehicle double deck Olympus order announced on 17 June is from independent Ensign Bus, on Volvo B9TL chassis.