Alexander Dennis is consulting on a new approach aimed at securing Scottish manufacturing operations and safeguarding jobs.<\/p>\n
The company would convert its Larbert manufacturing facility to a chassis manufacturing site, supporting all of its low-emission and zero-emission bus products. A statement noted that it would still close its legacy Falkirk facility, “aligning with its long-standing plans to exit that site”.<\/p>\n
The new proposal would save approximately 200 manufacturing and support jobs previously at risk of redundancy \u2013 and would retain approximately 350 roles within Scotland.<\/p>\n
Up to 115 roles would be placed at risk of potential redundancy, although Alexander Dennis stated that it would retain the flexibility to reintroduce bus body manufacturing to its Larbert facility at a later date.<\/p>\n
The company previously proposed closing both of its Scottish manufacturing sites in Falkirk and Larbert, with up to 400 jobs at risk of redundancy. In September, Alexander Dennis and the Scottish Government agreed a 26-week furlough scheme aimed at protecting jobs and long-term manufacturing capacity. This ended on 22 March.<\/p>\n
Alexander Dennis president and managing director Paul Davies said: “We are proposing to retain jobs and restart manufacturing at Larbert with a focus on chassis manufacturing \u2013 this represents the best possible outcome for our business, employees, customers and supply chain partners in the current climate.<\/p>\n
“This new approach would enable us to better align with the current market, whilst improving our efficiency, it also allows us to continue to adapt to rapidly changing and challenging market dynamics.<\/p>\n
“We remain grateful to the Scottish government for the furlough scheme support to secure these jobs, maintaining skills and manufacturing capability in central Scotland,” he continued, adding: “We will continue to work with the Scottish Government, its agencies and the trade unions to support staff during the consultation period.”<\/p>\n
The company’s statement pointed out that UK domestic bus manufacturing sector lost significant market share in 2025, with 51% of all zero-emission buses purchased in the UK sourced from overseas manufacturers \u2013 up by a quarter from 2024.<\/p>\n
Davies added: “The output of the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel does not place enough focus on the significant jobs and economic contribution the domestic bus manufacturers make to the UK, in addition, the results of the ScotZEB3 scheme are incredibly disappointing, with the majority of the funding going overseas to support bus and coach manufacturing in China.<\/p>\n
“We continue to repeat the same calls to both governments to level the playing field, recognise the cost of manufacturing in the UK and the fact that these higher costs flow through the supply chain \u2013 manufacturing in this country needs to be better supported if we are to generate the economic benefit that the country so badly needs.”<\/p>\n
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has called on the UK Government to urgently deliver on promises made to Alexander Dennis, including reforms to procurement and subsidy control legislation which would allow more work and contracts to go directly to Scottish firms.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Government’s \u00a34.1m furlough scheme comes alongside orders for more than 100 zero-emission vehicles through its \u00a345m ScotZEB3 scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour Ministers are shamefully silent on the promises they made, including changes to current procurement rules which favour foreign competitors, something the Scottish Government and trade unions have consistently called for,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital that the UK Government ensures a long-term pipeline of orders and a supportive approach to reserved matters such as subsidy and procurement \u2013 a first step would be changes to the Subsidy Control Act 2022 in order to create that pathway for procurement reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar responded: \u201cWhen Scotland needs more buses built by Scottish firms, it is devastating to see Alexander Dennis downscale and workers\u2019 lives thrown into uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn Swinney\u2019s failure on buses – like his ferry fiasco – is both bad leadership and bad economics; these avoidable job losses should be on his conscience and have happened on his watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow I will set out further plans to protect Scottish jobs from companies that take public money and walk away, and from an SNP government that has failed to stand up for Scotland\u2019s economy and workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan Fitzgerald, Unite’s Scottish secretary, added: \u201cThe decision by Alexander Dennis is callous and it will come as cruel blow to the workforce who have been on furlough for months with the hope that new bus orders would deliver a positive future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Alexander Dennis workers should be centre stage of the nation\u2019s efforts to deliver lower carbon emissions through the building of green buses; this announcement adds to a long-line of recent industrial closures while government ministers fail to lift a finger in support of workers and communities.”<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland is being hollowed-out and stripped of any meaningful green manufacturing capacity which is unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Up to 115 roles are still at risk of potential redundancy, due to closure of Falkirk site<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278857,"featured_media":3146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120782,127720],"coauthors":[137126],"class_list":["post-3145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-skills","tag-featured-story","tag-scotland","tag-tayside-fife","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\n