Optare raises eur 7.4m equity to support bus order growth 16 February 2011

British bus maker Optare has announced today (16 February) acash injection of eur 7.4 million via a successful equity placement.

"This placing is a significant milestone, after more than 18 months restructuring and repositioning the business," comments Optare CEO Jim Sumner.

These funds will allow relocation of the operations of the ageing Leeds factory to a new facility with the capability to substantially increase capacity, provide working capital for growth and significantly reduce term debt," he explains.

Optare's order book now stands at a record eur 43 million, with more on the horizon, and Sumner says the firm is currently in negotiations on a long-term lease for its new manufacturing site to support that growth.

He says that the new site will house a state of the art production facility capable of manufacturing Optare's new generation of single and double deck buses – and with capacity doubled to 1,200 buses.

The move will be the culmination of Optare's site rationalisation programme, with three constrained production facilities being replaced by one highly efficient assembly plant.

Sumner also confirms that lessons learned in the opening of new plants by Ashok Leyland, both in India and the Middle East, will be applied to the layout of the new factory.

Production is due to transfer from the Leeds site to the new location during the second half of 2011 under the leadership of Rodney Swarbrick, project manager, who has a 40-year career in the commercial vehicle sector and played key roles in production and manufacturing engineering management in the bus industry.

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Optare plc

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