History

In 1981, Leyland Truck and Bus was split into two companies: Leyland Trucks, which also took the engine manufacturing, and Leyland Bus. Leyland Bus was bought by its management in 1986. The management buy-out lasted only fifteen months and Leyland Bus was taken over by Volvo in 1988. Although the Leyland badge continued to appear on new vehicles for a time, wheels, axles and other parts were replaced by standard Volvo types. Eastern Coach Works at Lowestoft in Suffolk, which was part of the Leyland group, had closed in 1987.	In 1991 Volvo closed the original Leyland Farington works at Leyland in Lancashire, and then the newer factory at Workington in Cumbria. Remaining production was transferred to the Volvo truck plant at Irvine in Ayrshire. The Tiger, Royal Tiger and Lynx single-deck types had also been in the Leyland Bus range at takeover. The Tiger and Royal Tiger were quickly axed, because they were more sophisticated and expensive to produce than Volvo's B10M. The Lynx continued briefly, but the Olympian was the only type Volvo produced in numbers, and that ceased in the 1990s. Volvo's replacement for the Olympian, which many had expected to be built in the UK, has been produced in Sweden.	As for Leyland Trucks, they merged with the Dutch company DAF in 1986. There was political contention at the time, because, instead of being 50-50, the value of the combined company was supposed to be 40% Leyland, 60% DAF. After an interval, manufacture of engines and full-size trucks was discontinued in the UK, leaving the former Leyland plants with small vans and minibuses. In 1993 DAF divested itself of what was left of Leyland, and since then the UK has imported thousands of full-size DAF trucks and buses from Holland!
When Leyland Trucks were about to merge with (or, rather, be taken over by) DAF, the political rationale was said to be that Leyland Trucks was too small to survive on its own, and the combined company would be better able to compete in the European market. That rationale evidently had not applied a little earlier when Leyland Bus was split off from Leyland Trucks, making one large company into two small ones! Leyland Bus was a particularly absurd creation on that rationale, because there have been very few manufacturers of full-size buses that did not also make trucks.	From the beginning of the twentieth century up to 1980 nearly all buses in the UK were designed and built in the UK, and in 1980 75% of them were Leylands. Also, Leyland was exporting hundreds of buses every year to its traditional markets in South America, the Middle East and the Far East. By the end of the 1980s Leyland had ceased to exist.	Were the Leyland products so bad? If they were, why did they enjoy so large a home and overseas market right up to 1980? Consider other European countries that had long-established, large-scale commercial vehicle manufacturing in the decades before 1980, such as France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden. Have any of these countries allowed their largest, longest-established commercial vehicle manufacturer to go out of business? Can you imagine France allowing Renault to be taken over by a foreign company and have its French plants closed down? Can you imagine M.A.N. or Mercedes being allowed to go to the wall, even if Germany went into a dire recession?

It is not a matter of economics. It is always a matter of politics. Economics is only the science with which politicians try to blind us. The governments of other countries favour and protect their own industries, even in recession; so that, when a recession ends, the capacity and skill base remains in place to resume production and exports.

Now only Dennis manufactures full-size bus chassis in the UK, buying in standard engines, axles and other parts from other sources. Dennis, along with Alexander, is part of the Mayflower group, based in the United States.

Here are three excellent books which include coverage of the later years of Leyland:

Beyond Reality: Leyland Bus - the Twilight Years, by Doug Jack, Venture Publications, Glossop, 1994.

The British Bus Story: Early Eighties, by Alan Townsin, Transport Publishing Company, Glossop, 1992.

Leyland Bus: Mk 2, by Doug Jack, Promotional Reprint Company/Transport Publishing Company, Glossop, 1992. (This one takes you up to the last Leyland types of bus and ends on a positive note, assuming a successful future. It was published before the management buy out!)

Also well worth a read is part of a parliamentary debate about Volvo and Leyland in 1992 on the Hansard website:
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1992-03-10/Debate-7.html

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