Agreement reached ‘in principle’ to save Northern Ireland-based bus maker
Ownership of the Wrightbus factory and surrounding farmland has proved a sticking point in a rescue deal.
Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Wrightbus, the Northern Ireland-based maker of the revived Routemaster London bus, is close to being rescued after last-ditch talks.
The business went into administration last month with the loss of 1,200 jobs but it was announced on Friday that a deal had been reached “in principle” between the firm’s founding family and the industrialist Jo Bamford, the son of Lord Bamford, the chairman of machinery manufacturer JCB.
The Wright family owns the Wrightbus factory and adjoining farmland and an agreement over those assets had been the main sticking point over a rescue. Talks are ongoing between Bamford and the firm’s administrators, Deloitte. Wrightbus had been due to go into liquidation on Friday.
“We are delighted to announce that this morning I have agreed terms on a deal in principle with the Wright family for the Wrightbus factory and land,” said Bamford. “We are still to conclude a deal with the administrators but are pleased to report this important step in the right direction. I would like to thank Ian Paisley MP for his hard work and diligence in helping to mediate what has at times been a tricky negotiation.”
Paisley, the Democratic Unionist party MP for North Antrim, had been urging all involved to do their utmost to agree a deal. He told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster on Thursday that Bamford had put forward a “good offer”.
Farmland close to the factory premises had been at the heart of the dispute and breakdown in talks between Jeff Wright, the son of the company’s founder, Sir William Wright, and Bamford.
Wright said as part of the deal he had agreed to gift the farmland to Mid and East Antrim council to acknowledge the contribution of Ballymena people to the Wrightbus brand over 70 years.
“This legacy gift is a tribute not only to my father, his father before him, and the Wright family members but most importantly it is a tribute to the generations of workers who helped build a proud manufacturing tradition in Ballymena,” he said.
“It is my true wish to see this legacy used for the purposes of expanding manufacturing and benefiting our local community.”
He said the council had confirmed the lands would be used for a proposed innovation centre for manufacturing startups that could create almost 2,500 jobs.
“I believe the presence of this centre on the Wrightbus legacy land will send a clear message to Northern Ireland and beyond that Ballymena has a strong future in advanced manufacturing,” he added.
Wrightbus had been struggling with its finances and made two rounds of redundancies last year, with 95 jobs going in February and June. It had recent sales successes, including a Transport for London order in May for 20 hydrogen-powered buses, which each cost about £500,000 and only emit water as exhaust.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, completed an order of 1,000 of the New Routemasters in 2016, which had been launched with a fanfare when Boris Johnson was running the capital in 2012.