Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 11:43:35 on
Wed, 25 Sep 2019, Recliner remarked:
Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show
that in the second quarter of this year new bus and coach registrations are
down 30% compared to the same period last year.

That marks the tenth quarter in a row that new registrations have
declined."

We are on the verge of a recession, the future looks uncertain, and your
fleet is probably fully compliant with latest regs. Why as an operator
would you start buying new buses?

Of the bigger bus operators, only Go-Ahead are doing well, with both
First and Stagecoach in trouble.

I suppose I'm biased by being in London, where there always seem to be
new buses

The registrations are 'only' down 30%, not 100%.

It seems that Wrightbus had failed to take advantage of the switch to
battery buses, and had also donated over £16m — more than enough to keep
the business afloat — to the family church:

"The parent company of Wrights Group also donated more than £16.1m to
charity between 2012 and 2017. Those donations helped to fund the expansion
of Green Pastures, an influential evangelical church in Ballymena run by
Jeff Wright ."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/25/wrightbus-goes-into-administration-1400-jobs-routemaster-northern-ireland

In an interview with The Irish Times in November 2017, pastor Jeff [Wright]
noted that Cornerstone “made God a shareholder in the business” as 26 per
cent of Wrights is owned by the evangelical trust.

Despite being primed to take over the bus builder, pastor Jeff told The
Irish Times he felt God had a new question for him. “Do you love me more
than these buses?’ I said, ‘yeah, I do’. So God said ‘I want you to feed my
lambs and take care of my sheep’.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/manufacturing/wrightbus-donated-4m-to-christian-charities-in-2017-1.4030436