Alexander Dennis hails healthy market position
But says there is an ‘unlevel playing field’
Alexander Dennis says it is benefitting from a healthy market position. However, its leadership blames government policies for creating an ‘unfair playing field’ in the zero-emission bus market.
Paul Davies, President and Managing Director at Alexander Dennis, is ‘very pleased to report a very good market share’ in terms of bodywork manufacturing, taking a 47% share in the year to date (January to September 2024). Its nearest competitor has a 32% share.
Paul notes that in 2024 its chassis market share was slightly affected by final contracts with its electric chassis partner BYD. However, it is only ten vehicles behind its closest competitor, he notes.
Paul also stressed that Alexander Dennis does not assume Republic of Ireland registrations in terms of UK market share, considering it is not part of the UK.
“We’ve got a good order book, we’ve done well with ZEBRA 2,” Paul said and added its market share of diesel is ‘very strong’: “The diesel market is still buoyant. There was a significant number of diesel deliveries this year and we expect that to continue.”
Unlevel playing field
Paul admits that Alexander Dennis does face pressures from increasing competition but also from some ‘aggressive pricing behaviour’, which he says is behind the job losses in Scotland announced in September.
He believes there is an unlevel playing field as a result of government policies, with the market open to disruption from lower cost environments. He says import duties are insufficient to incentivise investment in domestic products and jobs, noting that duties for electric buses (10%) are lower than for diesel buses (16%).
Paul said: “The more frustrating thing is that [Alexander Dennis] continue to invest in the UK. With all the great things I would sing from the rooftops that we’ve done in last few years, there is really not enough done as far as we’re concerned to recognise that. The straw that broke the camel’s back was right here in Scotland where the outcome of ScotZEB 2 was really quite bad for us in the sense that this round of funding in Scotland for zero-emission buses, 80% of that investment is leaving these shores.”
Paul notes the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First policy is only applied to UK manufacturers, which he believes is ‘unacceptable’, defeating the policy’s aim of improving working conditions in Scotland by putting jobs at risk.
Franchising – ‘positive, joined up conversation’
Despite this, he believes the interest in franchising among local authorities across the country is bringing a ‘much more positive, joined up conversation’. He said: “We have heard some of the mayors speak positively about increasing ridership, getting better quality and reliability. But they also talk very positively about the economic benefit, about the supply chain, about jobs. We were spending a lot of time talking to Labour when they were the shadow government. And we want them to deliver on their commitment on supporting buses, not just in terms of operations, but recognising what we do here in the UK.”
- Look out for more on Alexander Dennis in the next issue of Bus and Coach Buyer (issue 1688, 18 October 2024)