New Solaris CEO

Current Solaris Bus & Coach CEO, Solange Olszewski, is to step down from her position. Replacing her from 1 April 2015 will be Dr Andreas Strecker. Andreas holds a doctorate in Technical Business Administration from the University of Stuttgart. He has over 15 years of experience in the transport industry, including nine years as President and CEO of Daimler Buses North America. Previous work for Daimler AG and its subsidiary EvoBus GmbH included being head of worldwide bus strategy, as well as controlling bus manufacturing activities in Mexico, Latin America and Asia. For the past four years, he has been Chief Financial Officer of Novoferm Group, a leading European producer of building materials.

Record year

Solaris Bus and Coach reported the highest sales result in its 19 year history in 2014. The number of vehicles sold reached 1,380, topping 2013’s record total of 1,302 trams and buses. Over the past 12 months, 80% of the company’s orders came from export markets (1,110 units). In its homeland of Poland, it sold 280 vehicles, which allowed the manufacturer to remain unchallenged as the market leader in the low-floor city buses segment in the country. With the delivery of 197 vehicles, Germany remained the most significant international market for Solaris. Among those delivered last year was the 10,000th bus produced by Solaris in Bolechowo, a Solaris Urbino 12 electric for Rheinbahn of Dusseldorf. Additionally, Solaris buses were sold in Turkey for the first time. The company gained 36 orders for electric buses in the year, coming from the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany and Sweden. As a result of the annually increasing sales volume, the Solaris board made a decision to expand its plant in Bolechowo near Poznan, Poland.