page_title: Wrightbus
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wrightbus / History
caption_attribution_description: English: First Somerset and Avon bus 66110 (reg. R910 BOU), a 1998 Volvo B10BLE single-decker with Wrightbus Renown bodywork, pictured on the Haymarket in Bristol city centre.
context_page_description: Wrightbus is a Northern Ireland based bus manufacturer and a pioneer of the low-floor bus. The company was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and was run by his son William Wright.
  On 25 September 2019, Wrightbus entered administration with the suspension of 1,300 jobs at their factory.
  On 11 October 2019, a deal was reached in principle between Jo Bamford and the Wright family for the land used by the factory, a sticking point in negotiations to sell the firm, although a deal was only made with the administrators on 22 October 2019, with Jo Bamford's Bamford Bus Company concluding a takeover of the company.
context_section_description: Wrightbus was founded in 1946 as Robert Wright & Son Coachbuilders. In its early years it rebodied lorries. In 1978, the company released its first aluminium-structured bus bodywork.
  Wright's breakthrough into the mainstream bus bodybuilding sector came in the early 1990s. The Handybus was a midibus body offered on a variety of chassis but was more successful than the emerging Dennis Dart in attracting reasonably-sized orders from a variety of operators including London Buses, Go Ahead Northern, Ulsterbus and Citybus (Belfast). This was followed by a move into the full size single deck market with the Endeavour which was fitted to Dennis Javelin, Leyland Tiger and Scania K93 chassis, and enabled Wright to develop its highly successful Endurance body which competed with the Alexander Strider and Northern Counties Paladin for orders on Volvo B10B and Scania N113CRB chassis.
  Other Wright products introduced in this period included two Mercedes-Benz-based products, the O405 based Cityranger and the OH1416 based Urbanranger. This was launched around the time bus operators in the UK began switching to low floor chassis. As a consequence the Urbanranger only attracted a handful of orders. However Wright had become well established in the bus bodybuilding sector by then and was more than able to exploit the opportunities the low-floor revolution would offer it from the mid-1990s onwards.
caption: First Somerset & Avon Wright Renown bodied Volvo B10BLE in Bristol in June 2011
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