Purchase of the Van Hool coach and bus activities by VDL has been agreed, with remaining Van Hool employees having been informed of that progress late on 10 April. It comes as hopes of a strong future for the Belgian marque in the UK grew, with the first example of a T range coach for a buyer here having been handed over on 11 April.
Van Hool was declared bankrupt on 8 April but it said soon afterwards that VDL had submitted a “binding offer” for the coach and bus component of the Belgian business, with its HGV trailer affairs set to go to GRW, a competence partner of Schmitz Cargobull.
VDL previously told routeone that various conditions attached to its offer needed to be met before progress could be made. An alternative bid from entrepreneur Guido Dumarey and United States Van Hool importer ABC Companies had been made.
Production is understood to have been paused at the Van Hool factory in Macedonia where T coaches are built. Several others for UK customers are complete on that site awaiting shipping, it has been confirmed.
Trustees of Van Hool have been reported by De Standaard in Belgium as being of a view that under VDL ownership, a restart to production can be made quickly, although it is not yet known whether manufacture of coaches and buses will recommence in Belgium.
In addition to the T range being built at the plant near Skopje, it was revealed in March that assembly of the TDX21 Altano vehicles for use by National Express partner operators was also taking place there. Those coaches remain on the production line in Macedonia.
Meanwhile, the first T for the UK was handed over to DJ Thomas Coaches on Thursday 11 April. It is due to star at the UK Coach Rally in Blackpool over the weekend immediately after.
That milestone vehicle is a T16 Astron tri-axle with 53 leather seats and a centre sunken toilet. It comes with a host of other amenities and has been described as “the Rolls-Royce of coach manufacturing” by Sales Representative Robert White, who handed the vehicle over. It carries markings to help celebrate the Neath operator’s 70th anniversary in 2024.
In a further hint of a strong future for the Van Hool brand under new ownership in the UK, Mr White says that customers have remained loyal despite the recent difficulties and that a number of orders are expected to be placed soon.
