Wrightbus, maker of London's Routemaster, went into administration with 1,200 job losses

Wrights Group, one of Northern Ireland's largest manufacturers and best known for building London's red Routemaster double-decker — the 'Boris bus' — went into administration in September 2019 after 73 years in business, with approximately 1,200 staff losing their jobs. Trade union Unite warned that a further 3,400 supply chain jobs were also under threat.

The controlling Wright family said it was 'devastated that the company has been placed in administration by the board'. The family had been covering 'significant losses' at the business for more than a year and it became impossible to maintain. They pointed to the industry's technology change from diesel to electric, which had slowed orders from within the UK; as the shortfall became apparent, one step had been moving work from the Malaysia facility back to Ballymena to secure local jobs.

The company had been seeking an investor or buyer since July, when financial difficulties first emerged and Deloitte was called in. But administrators Michael Magnay and Peter Allen, appointed across five group companies, said no buyer had emerged willing to maintain the business as a going concern, making the redundancies unavoidable.

The diesel-to-electric pivot froze orders while the company's expertise and capacity were still diesel-centred, opening a cash shortfall.

The family covered significant losses for more than a year rather than restructuring, spending the runway a buyer would have needed.

Relocating Malaysian work back to Ballymena protected jobs but raised costs at the very moment the order book was thinning.

A technology transition is a chasm, not a hill: the incumbent that keeps paying cash losses across the gap still falls in unless new capital bridges it first.

Administrators confirmed appointments across Wrights Group, Wrightbus, Wright En-Drive, Wright Composites and Metallix, expressing disappointment that months of extensive efforts had not found a going-concern buyer, while the family held out hope that a new owner would keep the Ballymena factory working.