{"id":2032,"date":"2013-02-15T18:52:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ballymenachamber.co.uk\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2013-02-15T18:53:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T18:53:10","slug":"wrightbus-lands-28m-vehicle-order-with-firstgroup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/?p=2032","title":{"rendered":"Wrightbus Lands \u00a328M Vehicle Order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Ballymena-based company Wrightbus announced today that it is set to benefit from an order worth over \u00a328m from FirstGroup plc., as the FTSE 250 listed company announced vehicle investment plans for the forthcoming financial year for its UK Bus operations. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\">Wrightbus faced significant competition from a number of manufacturers throughout the world and had to meet FirstGroup\u2019s exacting technical and commercial requirements. The vehicle order reinforces the Northern Ireland company\u2019s position as a world-leading bus supplier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2034\" title=\"\u00a328M Wrightbus Contract\" src=\"http:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/NEWWB_STORY.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"679\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/NEWWB_STORY.jpg 679w, https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/NEWWB_STORY-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 679px) 100vw, 679px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\">Wright Group Managing Director, Mark Nodder says: <em>\u201cWrightbus is thrilled to be awarded this substantial order for 179 vehicles from FirstGroup. This order shows FirstGroup\u2019s commitment to investing in programmes geared to encouraging the public to switch from cars to public transport, which will reduce both congestion and damage to the environment. It is a huge endorsement of the development of our StreetLite range of lightweight buses, which proved themselves best in class in every category at fuel trials conducted at Millbrook Proving Grounds under the close scrutiny of FirstGroup\u2019s engineers. We look forward to continuing our close working relationship with FirstGroup, a partnership which has lasted more than 17 years\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\">The order is the largest to date for the StreetLite lightweight bus which have been developed by Wrightbus and were first launched in June 2010 with support from Invest NI.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\">Giles Fearnley, Managing Director of First UK Bus. said he was delighted that First continues to support British bus manufacturers. <em>\u201cManufacturing partners like Wrightbus continue to lead the world in terms of quality and value for money. I\u2019m pleased that our tradition of supporting the British transport industry remains strong.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;\">The interior of each vehicle will be laid out to First\u2019s specification which was designed last year following extensive customer research. This seeks to maximise the flexibility for both buggies and wheelchairs whilst providing additional hand rails for all passengers whether seated or standing. All vehicles will be fitted with Wi-Fi so that customers can stay connected whilst on the move.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ballymena-based company Wrightbus announced today that it is set to benefit from an order worth over \u00a328m from FirstGroup plc., as the FTSE 250 listed company announced vehicle investment plans for the forthcoming financial year for its UK Bus operations. Wrightbus faced significant competition from a number of manufacturers throughout the world and had to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,41,31,48,21,22,34],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-achievement","tag-global-success","tag-international-success","tag-latest-news","tag-local-economy","tag-member-success","tag-new-contracts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2036,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions\/2036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}