After a year in the job, CBW speaks to Wrightbus CEO Jean-Marc Gales, who looks back at how the company has changed in that time
It’s almost 12 months since Jean-Marc Gales took the reins as Chief Executive of Wrightbus. In that time Jean-Marc, who hails from Luxembourg, has overseen tremendous growth at the company in terms of both output and jobs. An engineer by profession, he has a background at many of the big car names including Lotus, Peugeot, Citroen, Mercedes and Volkswagen.
“The business is growing very fast and I am really proud of what we have achieved over the last 12 months,” Jean-Marc said. “We are the number one zero-emission bus maker in the UK. A year ago, we had 200 zero-emission buses on the road. Today, we have over 700 and in the next year we will get to 1,700. No one else comes close.”
Wrightbus lays claim to being the only manufacturer in Europe to offer a ‘complete suite’ of zero-emission buses, with both battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell single and double-deckers, though it’s important to qualify that with the caveat that other manufacturers also produce broad ranges including hydrogen, electric and trolleybuses in rigid and articulated formats, the latter being a more typical solution in Europe where high capacity is required; Wrightbus’ chief overseas double-deck market for fossil fuel and new energy buses is the Far East.
[wlm_nonmember][…]By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
“Demand for our world-class electric and hydrogen buses continues to grow all over the world,” Jean-Marc said. “We are making 1,000 buses this year, which is up from 623 last year and up from 427 the year before. Revenue is also growing 70% every year.
“We are being recognised in the industry for a range of factors including for our efficiency, innovation and support services. We’ve got a very strong order book this year, which is made up of 80% electrical, 10% hydrogen and 10% diesel buses, which are the cleanest diesel buses in their class.
“There is a lot of interest in hydrogen buses at the moment and I think we’ll see strong growth in our hydrogen buses, which will be driven by interest coming from Germany. We will make some new announcements about that very soon. We’ve currently got 130 hydrogen buses in operation across the UK and Europe, and next year I expect hydrogen will make up 15-20% of our orders.
“We’ve won five deals in Europe, but we want more and we will go flat out to achieve that,” he added, though not all of those deals have yet been made public.
ZE coaching
Jean-Marc says the company is also looking into the development of hydrogen coaches: “The gap between diesel and zero-emission is closing. It closed substantially last year, will close more this year, and even further next year,” he said. “Buses have been the first port of call, particularly city buses which have been a big success, but we are now starting development work on hydrogen coaches.”
Wrightbus currently employs more than 1,600 people, four years after being bought out of administration by Jo Bamford with just 56 staff on its books. “It is not so long ago we had 1,000 people. By the end of the year we will have close to 2,000 employees. After that we will grow further,” said Jean-Marc.
Among that number, Wrightbus is looking to take on 80 more apprentices, to add to the 50 it already employs. “Apprentices are an incredible asset for our company; they bring with them fresh enthusiasm and invaluable ways of thinking, helping us all grow and develop new ideas, processes, solutions and products,” he explained.
“Our apprentices already make a valuable contribution to our work and now we have excellent opportunities for more candidates who are ready to kick start their careers while gaining recognised qualifications, invaluable work experience and earning as they learn.”
Last year, Wrightbus secured a number of large orders, including 80 new London buses for Abellio, 34 for Arriva and an initial 20 hydrogen buses for the Go-Ahead Group to service routes to and around Gatwick Airport. The company says its order book continues to thrive this year as it builds on existing partnerships with Abellio, Arriva, Stagecoach, the Go-Ahead Group, the NTA in Ireland and other operators across the world.
“Wrightbus’s ambition is to reduce the environmental impact of public transport and we continue to invest in ground-breaking technology as a driver to developing cleaner, more efficient transport solutions,” Jean-Marc concluded.
“Innovation is the lifeblood of the business and our commitment will always be to net zero and a greener future. Wrightbus is definitely the leader in the industry and we want to maintain that.”
