Ambulances to the rescue
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• Wadham Stringer's bus sales have fallen by 20%, but its ambulance business has come to the rescue to boost predicted 1990 turnover past the 210m mark.
In an interview with Commercial Motor last week, managing director Geoffrey Bailey said that in a normal year the Waterlooville-based bodybuilder would expect its business to comprise 70% buses and 30% ambulances. But for this and most of next year he predicts that sales will be split equally between the two areas with bus production falling from last year's 200 to about 160.
"We are lucky to be able to expand one area when the opportunity arises — but we don't do this at the expense of the other area," says Bailey.
Last month 24 of Wadham Stringer's 200 staff were laid off, but he expects the bus bodybuilding sector to pick up by the end of next year.
In the meantime the company is benefiting from a review in the health service which is leading to a demand for 'paramedic' vehicles — ambulances fitted with a high standard of equipment.
Wadham Stringer plans to develop its ambulance range during 1991, and it expects to sell at least 250 ambulances this year.
It recently won a 22.5m order to supply the Hong Kong government with 90 ambulances: a £1.5m order for at least another 50 units is expected to follow.