Heyfordian has announced that MAN will be its preferred marque for future orders, as it takes delivery of eight Neoplan Tourliners.
The family-owned Bicester-based firm has taken four 55-seater 13.26m Tourliner Select Plus and four 61-seater 13.8m Tourliner Select Plus coaches, all funded by Close Brothers Vehicle Hire.
They will be used for long distance tour work and private hire contracts throughout the UK and Europe.
GM Steve Smith says: “I spent considerable time researching which vehicles we wanted to go with and MAN met our requirements in terms of the drive train and the Neoplan bodies.
“They are our preferred marque for our vehicle replacement programme and we certainly see MAN as our primary drive train for our top-end fleet.
“There are 82 vehicles in our fleet in total, eight of them the new Neoplans. We also have a Beulas double-decker and two 74-seater MOBIpeople coaches on MAN chassis.
Other orders this year include another Beulas MAN double-decker and two Beulas MAN coaches.
Heyfordian Travel was set up in 1947 in Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, by James T Smith. It started with one pre-war double-decker bus initially transporting American servicemen from the US Air Base at Upper Heyford into Oxford for ‘nights out’.
It grew considerably in the 1970s by taking over a number of local companies and has maintained a fleet size of 80-100 vehicles since then.
Adds Mr Smith: “We are proud to say that we are still a family-owned business and maintain the core values of customer service, reliability and safety that were enshrined when we were founded.”
Matt Jacob, MAN Senior Coach Sales Executive says: “We are delighted that Heyfordian Travel has decided to place its business with MAN after carrying out intensive research.
“We pride ourselves on offering a quality range of vehicles that meets our customer requirements for efficiency, safety and comfort and at the same time providing reliable customer service and support for them.
“The fact that we have delivered eight new Tourliners to the company demonstrates the faith customers put in the marque.”