Van Hook 'We may pull out'
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VAN HOOL McArdle could pull out of its Irish base if a planned agreement with American Motors to build buses in Dublin goes ahead. A Van Hool spokeswoman told CM this week that unless there were successful talks with the Irish state transport authority (CIE), it is possible that the company might move out of the country.
The situation is the latest 1 development in a story that has strained relations between CIE and Van Hool. Both parties agree that CIE owes Van Hool £1.5 million, and the company wants some of that debt paid in settlement of the current situation.
Already Van Hool has temporarily laid off 300 workers and CIE says it is prepared to honour an undertaking given to workers when the plant was set up in 1973 that they would be taken on by CIE if the venture failed.
CIE has also offered to employ people taken on by Van Hool since the Dublin plant was set up.
A CIE spokesman told CM that it had said in July it would not be renewing its contract to buy buses from Van Hool, and had made no announcement of the AMC move.
News of the American Motors move to Dublin came during negotiations between CIE and the trade unions involved. Now CIE has con firmed that. the company will be moving into Ireland towards the end of 1978.
And AMC is to continue using the General Motors power pack that CIE is contracted to use in place of Leyland engines and chassis that it has been using.
To ensure that Van Hool McArdle stays in Ireland, the company wants an assurance that part of the debt will be paid and that there will be a return to "some market stability". The spokeswoman said that Van Hool was "dis turbed to learn that CIE has told the unions that AMC is moving in." Van Hool said this-week that it could survive in Ireland on the expanding business of building private coach bodies "if we are left to get on with the job," but the spokeswoman said the company was faced with opposition from an "unhelpful" CIE.