Ashburton bus company adding 50 jobs

Designline is increasing production to 300 buses a year. File picture / Geoff Sloan

Ashburton-based bus manufacturer Designline is poised for a major expansion which will see up to 50 new jobs created next year.

The latest growth spurt comes as a result of the company breaking into the Australian and United States city bus markets.

Company managing director John Turton said the company would expand its production capacity to 300 buses a year. This year the company will build about 200 buses.

Two of the company's latest diesel city buses arrived in Melbourne this week in what is effectively a trial order.

Mr Turton said this initial shipment would lead next year to "a reasonably large order" from the Melbourne customer.

He was also optimistic success in Melbourne would lead to the company winning orders from other city bus operators elsewhere in Australia.

"We have already got strong interest from other operators."

The company's innovative hybrid electric buses are also destined for export to Australia, with the first shipment also expected to be sent across the Tasman next year.

Mr Turton said the company's products had gained a foothold in Australia based on superior technology and overall passenger-friendly design, compared to designs offered by Australian rivals.

The company is also set to break into the potentially huge US transit bus market, having appointed a company based in Denver to act as an agent.

The first diesel buses will be shipped to the US in the middle of next year.

Mr Turton would not disclose the city the buses were going to, nor the size of the order, but said it was considerably larger than the number of buses likely to be exported to Australia.

As in the Australian market, Mr Turton said Designline's buses were superior to those manufactured by domestic bus manufacturers in the US in terms of technology, vehicle emission levels and overall styling.

Because of US local content regulations relating to all government agency purchases, a significant proportion of the components for the buses will be imported from the US, he said.

Breaking into both markets was the culmination of years of hard work and considerable expense, Mr Turton said.

The biggest challenge was re-engineering bus designs to meet the specific safety regulations of each country.

With factory capacity expanding, staff numbers on site will grow to about 170 and allow the company to introduce more advanced manufacturing technology, such as robotisation of some tasks.

Once the latest factory expansion was complete, Mr Turton said, Designline would rank as one of the largest bus manufacturers in Australasia.

Designline this year won a deal to supply Stagecoach North East, one of Britain's largest bus operators, with nine hybrid electric buses.

That deal is expected to lead to other contracts.

Designline started working on the buses 10 years ago after realising the company needed to focus on producing specialised vehicles for niche markets and build to customers' specifications.

It received a $90,000 business growth funding grant from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to develop its strategy.

- NZPA