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Bus firm’s woes underline the challenge as region faces up to the threat of no deal
When Wrightbus decided to buy the old Gallaher’s cigarette factory in Ballymena in 2016, it represented a symbol of hope for County Antrim’s manufacturers: a booming, hi-tech business – most famous for making Boris Johnson’s new London Routemasters – picking up the slack left by the departure of a dying industry. Those hopes proved short-lived: the bus maker announced 1,200 redundancies last week when no new buyer could be found to avert a cash crunch.
Wrightbus is not the only famous Northern Irish company to struggle in recent months: Bombardier is looking to sell Belfast’s historic Short Brothers aerospace operations, while the city’s Harland and Wolff shipyard – which built the Titanic – fell into administration last month. Continue reading...