A Northern Ireland bus maker founded in 1946, known for zero-emission buses and the New Routemaster for London.
Wrightbus builds buses from its home in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. It is best known in Britain for the New Routemaster double-decker for London, introduced in 2012, and for zero-emission models including battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses. Other products include the StreetDeck and StreetLite and the Gemini double-decker family.
It was established in 1946 by Robert Wright as a coachbuilder that rebodied lorries, and it moved into mainstream bus building in the early 1990s. Jo Bamford bought the company out of administration in 2019. Its stated goal is to become a global mobility business by broadening its range. In January 2025 it launched a new brand, Rightech, with battery-electric 7.5-tonne trucks and small buses. CEO Jean-Marc Gales said the quickest way to decarbonise truck and bus fleets is to electrify immediately.
Its headquarters and main factory are at 201 Galgorm Road, Ballymena. UK service workshops are at Ballymena, Bicester and Warwick, and a partnership with Sapphire adds 14 regional workshops. The company says about 2,200 people work for it, with factories in Northern Ireland and Malaysia, and that 43 per cent of each bus comes from UK suppliers. A green hydrogen production facility in Ballymena was announced in February 2023.
The company says it has about 1,700 electric buses on the road with 98.6 per cent in-service availability. These are its own claims. It also describes the largest mobile technician fleet in the UK, which shows how many service and workshop roles sit behind the vehicles. Partners include Ryze Power for charging infrastructure and W-Tech, with Queen's University Belfast, for route optimisation. In May 2025 a 6m electric minibus, the RB6, was trialled in Germany with Ruhrbahn Essen, so the work reaches well beyond the UK. Wikipedia says a hydrogen driveline demonstrator with a 1,000 km range was unveiled in September 2024, and the Hygen Energy plan in Ballymena aims to produce green hydrogen on site, so hydrogen is a real part of its future. Its Rightech engineers spent over 30,000 hours adapting imported vehicles to Wrightbus standards.
A bus maker employs designers and electrical engineers, fabricators and assembly staff, quality and test teams, and people in sales, procurement and finance. Field technicians keep fleets running across the UK and Europe. If you want a career that helps cities cut emissions while building something you can see on the road, Wrightbus is one to look at.
Website: www.wrightbus.com
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