The Irish specialist bus and mobile library manufacturer has closed, with all staff being made redundant
Over 60 staff have lost their jobs at Ballymena-based manufacturer Nu-Track, which specialises in producing wheelchair accessible buses, minibuses, mobile libraries and horse-boxes, following the firm’s collapse into administration, reports The Irish Times. The company has links to controversial pastor and former Wrightbus owner Jeff Wright, although he ceased to be a person with significant control of the firm in July.
In a statement, Nu-Track said it was with ‘profound regret’ that workers were being made redundant, and that it had made ‘every effort’ to avoid closure. The company said there had been several factors which limited its options, including the one local client withdrawing from a contract for 130 vehicles. Nu-Track said the client withdrew after only around 70 had been delivered, owing a substantial debt which Nu-Track is pursuing through the courts.
The statement continued: “This, combined with public sector clients who, despite our requests, were not willing to make any payment towards their orders prior to delivery of their completed vehicles, placed an unreasonable strain on cashflow. Our inability to fulfil this order without customer funding resulted in the base vehicles being removed by the client, bringing an end to our shop floor production, and consequently causing job losses.
“On reflection we should not have entered imbalanced contracts of this type, where the customer, although a government body, had no contribution to the build cost.”
Increasing component costs, unprecedented rises in base metal prices, reduced production volumes and extensive delays in bus chassis supply from manufacturers were also cited as further issues which led to the collapse.
The company added: “We have sought to close our operations at a time when employee demand within our sector is high in the local area. Care of our staff being paramount,” noting that there are number of vacancies in the manufacturing sector in the area, which is also home to Wrightbus, which require a similar skill-set.
