Henlys Group - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Henlys Group PLC was a car dealer that became a major player in the bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

and coach

Coach (vehicle)

A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...

business in both North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

History

Henlys started life as a Jaguar and Rover dealer. Its former premises gave their name to Henlys Corner, the junction of the North Circular Road

A406 road

The A406 or the North Circular Road is a road which crosses North London, UK, linking West and East London. It, together with the South Circular Road, forms a ring road through the inner part of Outer London...

, A1

A1 road (London)

The A1 road in London is an A road in North London. It runs from London Wall to Bignell's Corner, where it crosses the M25 and becomes the A1 motorway, alternating with the A1 as it continues to Edinburgh. The London section of the road passes through four London Boroughs: the City of London,...

and Finchley Road

Finchley Road

Finchley Road, an inner city main road which runs for about 7 kilometres/4 miles, is one of the major thoroughfares of north London, England.Originally named Finchley New Road, it was built as a turnpike road in the late 1820s/early 1830s to provide a by-pass to the existing route north from London...

in Hampstead Garden Suburb

Hampstead Garden Suburb

-Notable Residents :*Theo Adams*Martin Bell*Sir Victor Blank*Katie Boyle*Constantine, the last King of Greece*Greg Davies*Richard & Judy Finnigan*David Matthews*Michael Ridpath*Claudia Roden*Jonathan Ross*Sir Donald Sinden*Marc Sinden...

.

In 1985 Henlys was bought by the Hawley Group, owners of Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne is a coachbuilder in the UK that specialises in converting cars into funeral vehicles, stretched limousines, preparation of police vehicles and other specialist vehicles...

, makers of funeral hearse

Hearse

A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...

s. Hawley Group formed a Motoring Division comprising Henlys and Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne is a coachbuilder in the UK that specialises in converting cars into funeral vehicles, stretched limousines, preparation of police vehicles and other specialist vehicles...

. In 1989, Henlys and Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne is a coachbuilder in the UK that specialises in converting cars into funeral vehicles, stretched limousines, preparation of police vehicles and other specialist vehicles...

were sold to the Plaxton

Plaxton

Plaxton is a builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough, England.-History:The Plaxton of today is the successor to a business founded in Scarborough in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton.-Beginnings:...

Group, the bus and coach manufacturer based in Scarborough, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. In May 1992, the Plaxton

Plaxton

Group PLC was renamed as Henlys Group PLC.

Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne

Coleman Milne is a coachbuilder in the UK that specialises in converting cars into funeral vehicles, stretched limousines, preparation of police vehicles and other specialist vehicles...

was sold to a management buy-out in 1992.

Henlys pursued a strategy of diversification and expansion through the 1990s. The established bus bodybuilder Northern Counties was bought in 1995 for £10 million. The UK bus and coach manufacturing business, trading under the Plaxton
Plaxton
Plaxton is a builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough, England.-History:The Plaxton of today is the successor to a business founded in Scarborough in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton.-Beginnings:...

brand, continued to produce a range of bus and coach bodywork. It also owned one of the largest UK coach dealers, Kirkby, and provided after-sales services to coach and bus operators.

In 1995, Henlys acquired a 49 per cent. share in Prévost

Prevost Car

Prevost is a Quebec, Canada-based manufacturer of touring coaches and bus shells for high-end motorhomes and specialty conversions.The company now owns Nova Bus and in turn is owned by Volvo Bus Corporation.- History :...

, a leading North American manufacturer of coaches and bus shells. The remaining 51% of the company was owned by Volvo

Volvo

AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...

.

In February 1998, Prévost

Prevost Car

acquired Nova Bus

Nova Bus

Nova Bus is a Canadian bus manufacturer in North America, owned by Volvo Buses, and headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada.- History :The factory was originally a General Motors plant for building city transit buses intended for the Canadian market...

, a city bus manufacturer for the Canadian and US market.

In July 1998 Henlys made an agreed bid of £190 million for bus and utility vehicle maker Dennis

Dennis Specialist Vehicles

Dennis Specialist Vehicles is a major British coachbuilder and manufacturer of specialised commercial vehicles based in Guildford, England...

. A hostile bidding war ensued with engineering group Mayflower, owners of Scottish bus builder Walter Alexander

Walter Alexander Coachbuilders

Walter Alexander Coachbuilders was a Scottish bus coachbuilder and operater based in Falkirk.-History:Walter Alexander, notice a lack expasion by the Falkirk and District Tramways Company's especially in to Grangemouth which never hdd a tram line. In 1913 Alexander's Motor Service was created to...

. Volvo

Volvo

lent its support to the Henlys bid, which was raised to £247 million, but the Dennis board ultimately accepted Mayflower's £268.9 million offer.

In 1999 Henlys announced they were planning to spend up to £100 million on acquisitions, the money intended to be spent on the acquisition of Dennis, in order to expand its bus building activities in the US. After discussions with several companies, Henlys purchased Blue Bird, the US school bus manufacturer, for £267 million. This prompted speculation that Volvo

Volvo

might bid for Henlys. Henlys raised £111 million in a rights issue in order to fund the acquisition.

In August 2000, with continuing domestic sales difficulties, a joint venture was formed with Mayflower, now owners of the Dennis and Alexander brands. The joint venture, known as TransBus International, included only the United Kingdom bus manufacturing operations, including Plaxton

Plaxton

and Northern Counties. Henlys held a 30% stake in the joint venture, which employed 3,300 employees at seven locations. The traditional brands of Alexander, Dennis and Plaxton were replaced by TransBus International. In 2004 Mayflower Group failed, and TransBus International went into administration. It was soon bought out by new businesses Alexander Dennis

Alexander Dennis

Alexander Dennis Limited is the largest bus builder in the United Kingdom. It incorporated the three last surviving bus manufacturers which started bus production before World War II: Dennis, Alexander and Plaxton.- History :Alexander Dennis was formed as TransBus on 1 January 2001, after the...

and a new incarnation of Plaxton

Plaxton

.

The remaining operations were also in financial difficulty. Henlys hoped to preserve the group's North American operations, which had strong order books. However, servicing debt had placed a considerable burden on the company. The North American operations were restructured, including closure of the Nova Bus

Nova Bus

factory in Roswell, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

.

In May 2004 a new chairman, David James

David James, Baron James of Blackheath

David Noel James, Baron James of Blackheath CBE is a British businessman and corporate troubleshooter and Conservative life peer.-Career:...

, was appointed to help rescue the company. In June 2004 it was announced that a restructuring of Henlys would leave the shares with little or no value, and that the company's problems were caused by over-paying for the Blue Bird business in 1999. Shares in the company were delisted from the Stock Exchange.

In October 2004 the Blue Bird operations were restructured with Volvo

Volvo

and creditor banks taking over the Henlys share. Volvo

Volvo

also took over the Prevost

Prevost Car

and Nova Bus

Nova Bus

operations.

The company was finally wound down over the course of 2004 and early 2005.

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