Historic Scots bus manufacturer announces plans to close factories with 400 jobs at risk
Alexander Dennis plans to shutter its factories in Camelon and Larbert.
An historic Scots bus manufacturer has announced plans to close two of its factories with more than 400 jobs at risk.
Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL) today launched a consultation with impacted staff at its plants in Larbert and Camelon after revealing it wants to centralise its operations in England.
The news is a hammer blow to the local economy in Falkirk just weeks after the refinery in nearby Grangemouth was shuttered.
ADL said its Scots factories would continue to operate until their order books were complete.
The statutory consultation places up to 400 roles at at potential risk of redundancy, amounting to 22 per cent of the company's workforce.
Euan Stainbank, Labour MP for Falkirk, said: 'I will exhaust every option to make sure this threat to Scotland's century long history of bus manufacturing does not get lost to the industrial failure that this consultation constitutes.
"My sole priority in for the period of the consultation is to fight for the jobs of the bus manufacturing workers in my town. I will continue to work tirelessly with the company and UK Government to advocate for solutions that maintain bus manufacturing in Falkirk."
Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, said: "This will be a hugely worrying time for the workforce at Alexander Dennis, their families and the wider community.
'In recent weeks, the Scottish Government has engaged extensively with Alexander Dennis and its parent company NFI to understand the issues and ensure that every possible avenue is explored to mitigate the need for redundancies.
"This has included discussions with myself, the First Minister, leadership within Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland and the UK Government.
'The Scottish Government will continue to explore any and all options throughout the consultation period to allow the firm to retain their hard-working employees and manufacturing and production facilities at Falkirk and Larbert.
"In the event of any job losses, the Scottish Government will provide support through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment initiative."
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The Herald Scotland
20 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
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This is all the more so when it comes to manufacturing job losses in Scotland, perhaps because of the extent to which this sector has dwindled over the decades. The news that up to 400 jobs are at risk at Falkirk bus manufacturing firm Alexander Dennis is first and foremost a massive blow to the people directly affected. It means there is a very real prospect of hundreds more people joining the ranks of the unemployed in an area hit hard by the closure of Scotland's only oil refinery at Grangemouth, with the loss of around 400 job losses. It is always disheartening when concerns over widespread job cuts come a distant second in the minds of those seeking to score political points from corporate decisions taken to reduce workforces. 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The Scottish Government has also come under for fire failing to deliver the amount of "green" jobs in the transition from oil and gas production to renewable energy that ministers forecast. Read more: But in the matter of Alexander Dennis, which has been part of NFI Group since the North American company acquired the firm for £320 million in 2019, any culpability on the part of the Scottish Government seems hard to discern. Winnipeg-based NFI, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, looks simply to have assessed its costs and concluded that it can save money by consolidating its UK bus body building operations into a single site. Unfortunately for Scotland, the site selected for this work is in Scarborough, not Falkirk. Euan Stainbank, the Scottish Labour MP for Falkirk, said the Scottish Government should have done more to support Alexander Dennis by ordering more buses from domestic manufacturers to serve local networks. 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It looks for all the world that the proposed cuts at Alexander Dennis are destined to become another sad chapter in Scottish industrial history, and one that will be especially poignant given the company's proud and long manufacturing legacy.
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The transport secretary Fiona Hyslop confirmed a "substantial subsidy" was needed to allow it to get a direct uncontested contract to build seven new ferries and secure its future. But she has admitted in correspondence with former community safety minister Ash Regan that that subsidy was not justified and the contract went to an overseas firm. Ms Regan has raised concerns that it was "not the direct award that's the issue it's the unwillingness to put public money behind a public asset". The Scottish Government denied on Thursday evening that any funding had been halted. Ferguson Marine has been dogged with issues with the delivery of lifeline ferries Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa which were due online in the first half of 2018 when it was under the control of tycoon Jim McColl. The last estimates suggest the costs of delivery of the vessels for CalMac will have soared to more than five times the original £97m cost. 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Glen Rosa was expected to be taking passengers in September - but now state-owned Ferguson Marine has admitted the full sign off and deliver will not be till the summer of next year - between April and July. The Scottish Government had already carried out a 'due diligence' exercise over the provision of a direct uncontested contract to Ferguson Marine to build the ferries but minister previously said it was rejected as it was felt it would be subject to a state aid legal challenge. Ferguson Marine's business plan which assumed that there would be a direct award was approved and submitted in June, last year before being verbally accepted by ministers the following month, when Ms Forbes publicly stated an intention to invest £14.2m to upgrade the yard. The plan was based on the yard remaining under public ownership for at least the next five years. Concerns over the funding of the yard come after the Herald revealed that the public cost of Ferguson Marine had hit up to £750m. A £69m overspend in 2023/24 alone - with costs totalling £131m was said to be in the main due to huge slump in the value of the two fiasco ferries. Financial statements up to 2025/26 had revealed that budgets set by the Scottish Government for Ferguson Marine were overspent to the tune of £210m in the first five years since it was nationalised at the end of 2019 as it attempted to deliver two long-delayed and wildly over-budget lifeline ferries. The costs so far of the beleaguered Inverclyde shipyard firm - which includes sums to cover running costs, wages and a dramatic slump in the value of the stricken vessels - soared to just nearly £710m before the board last month sought £35m more public money from the Scottish Government because of further rises in costs to deliver Glen Rosa, the second of the two ferries. The Ferguson Marine bill is enough to cover the cost of 13 ferries of the type currently being built for Scotland at the Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard in Turkey. Kate Forbes at Ferguson Marine (Image: Andrew Milligan) Ms Forbes has consistently told MSPs that the £14.2m support package over two years to help secure Ferguson Marine's future was in place and in March told MSPs that "hundreds of jobs have been protected only because of the actions of the Government". In March she told MSPs that there needed to be support for Ferguson Marine to be as competitive as possible so that it is able to secure work through a fair and open procurement process and that "that is the reason for the £14.2m investment" She further told them: "The bottom line is that we have agreed to invest £14.2 million in equipment for the yard so that it can compete on a global basis." But officials had consistently confirmed to the Herald that the two-year investment remains subject to the kind of due diligence tests that stopped the yard from directly getting the small vessels ferry contract. That due diligence investigation, which involves passing detailed legal analysis and independent financial and commercial assessments, was supposed to be complete by the Autumn of last year. The board of the loss-making Scottish Government-owned firm has admitted that questions over further financial support from ministers is casting a "significant doubt" on its ability to continue operations as losses incurred by Ferguson Marine have totalled over £2.7m in the last two full years. Ferguson Marine has a 'letter of comfort' which says that "it is our present policy, including with active consideration of the business plan budget and future work of the group, subject to the approval of the Scottish Parliament and in so far as permitted by applicable laws and withing agreed budgets for at least a period of 12 continue to provide support to the group". Despite that, the board in financial papers acknowledged that there [is] uncertainty surrounding the future levels of support due diligence surrounding letters of assurance and investment in the yard [that] indicate a material uncertainty related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the group's ability to continue as a going concern and, that it may be unable to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business." Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) which made a net loss of £1.3m in 2022/23 had previously been concerned about the risks to the business and pointed to a failure to get a committed investment at that point of £25m to support future work at the Inverclyde after the delivery of Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa. Ousted Ferguson Marine chief executive David Tydeman has indicated that even the reduced £14.2m over two year would not itself be enough. Under his leadership, the shipyard which relies on public funds, had stated that a failure to get a committed investment of £25m to support future work had cast "significant doubt" on its ability to continue. Investment was required for a vital new plating line and software to raise productivity and help it compete for future work and it was hoped there would be delivery by December, last year. But that hasn't happened. At the time Ferguson Marine admitted it was not as competitive as other yards that have modern plating lines and modern facilities. As the plating line cannot be installed for nearly two years the yard would not get decent productivity until 2027, even if ordered now, which makes pricing for future work harder. Mr Tydeman was fired on March 26, last year after a tumultuous two years at the helm of the nationalised shipyard after he told ministers there would be even further delays to Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa. Ferguson Marine declined to comment. The Scottish Government was approached for comment at lunchtime on Wednesday but did not respond until 6.41pm on Thursday A spokesman said: "Any reports that funding to the Ferguson Marine shipyard has been halted is completely untrue. Scottish Government funding for the yard is set out in the 2025/26 Scottish budget. "As previously set out, the Scottish Government stands ready to invest up to £14.2 million over two years, subject to due diligence and commercial standards being met, to help enhance yard infrastructure and deliver productivity improvements to help it win more work."
