You will buy a bus!

Book News

Wright Group used the Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham to launch a new book detailing the history of the Ballymena-based manufacturer. Written by former sales director Jack Kernohan, it’s a wonderful book that is full of anecdotes from the past.

Phil Margrave, Go Ahead’s group engineering director, describes an early visit to Wrights in the late 1980s. On arrival at Ballymena he was treated to the sight of the product development team throwing bricks at some panels in the car park. Clearly Wrights did things in a different way!

Despite many attempts, Margrave refused to buy a Wright product, largely on the grounds of cost. Indeed it got to the stage where Kernohan even refused to retire until he had “sold Phil Margrave a bus”! Finally, Wrights introduced a double deck design and Margrave admits that  he could not resist.

 The rest is history and he says that dealing with Wrights is like dealing with a family: “A family that draws you in... then introduces you to [founder] William who attaches the handcuffs that never come off!”