Record Year for Solaris in 2010

Solaris finished 2010 with another record business result. 1120 buses were delivered to customers, more than ever before. Solaris continues to be uncontested market leader in Poland as well as being the biggest importer into Germany and Sweden. The company’s turnover was up 10.5% to 325 million EUR. Solaris expects another good result in 2011.

amp;

Solaris successfully continued its sustainable growth in 2010 and once again achieved a record business result. Bus deliveries were up slightly on the previous year, with turnover and employee headcount both recording significant increases. Major events included the start of tram production. An initial order for 45 Tramino low-floor trams is being produced at two new facilities in the Greater Poznań region.

Extended Market Leadership in Poland - Biggest Importer into Germany and Sweden

In 2010, bus deliveries were up slightly to a new record of 1120 buses (2009: 1114 buses). 407 of these were destined for Polish customers (2009: 262 buses). This put Solaris at the top of the Polish bus and coach market with a 36.6% share (2009: 27.3%). City buses continue to be a key market for Solaris and the company leads the Polish city bus market with a 55.6% share (2009: 53.1%), over 40% ahead of the nearest competitors.

713 buses were exported to customers in Europe (2009: 852 buses), accounting for 63.7% of total deliveries (2009: 76.5%). The highest numbers of vehicles were for customers in Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Swedish customers received a total of 224 buses, eight times as many as the year before (2009: 28 buses). This allowed Solaris to greatly expand its presence of the Swedish market, achieving a 15.6% share of the total market (2009: 3.2%) and making Solaris third-largest supplier and biggest importer into Sweden.

Likewise, Solaris again was biggest importer of buses in Germany during 2010. With 190 buses supplied (2009: 224 buses), Solaris was in third place for registrations of buses and coaches over 8 tonnes gross vehicle weight, with only the two domestic groups delivering more vehicles. Solaris’s share of the total German bus and coach market was 4.3% (2009: 4.7%). All 190 buses were city buses, giving the company a 9.3% share (2009: 9.5%) of this key market segment.

Significant Increase in Turnover - Over 400 New Jobs Created

Annual turnover of Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. was up 10.5% to 325 million EUR in 2010 (2009: 294 million EUR).¹

Thanks to the start of tram production and other initiatives, Solaris created 404 new jobs in 2010. At the end of the year, 1966 people worked for the company (2009: 1562 people). This puts Solaris among the major employers in the Greater Poznań region.

Innovation Key to Success - 15 Years Solaris Celebrated

"Among the keys to our success are our spirit of innovation and the high quality of our buses and trams. Over the past year, these helped us win new customers for our products. More important still is the high number of existing customers placing repeat orders for our buses. We could not hope for better references than these," said Solaris CEO Solange Olszewska.

In 2011, Solaris again expects a good result with further sustainable growth. Among business development plans is the addition of further eco-friendly drive technologies to the product range, including the start of volume production of two new hybrid buses. With partner Voith Turbo, Solaris will build an articulated city bus with the new DIWAhybrid parallel hybrid system. Vossloh Kiepe supplies the technology for a series hybrid system which uses both lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors for energy storage and which additionally can be charged externally. These and other hybrid buses as well as tried and tested Solaris trolleybuses provide valuable experience for the development of battery electric buses. A first prototype is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.

Furthermore, Solaris celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. On 22 March 1996 bus production at Bolechowo opened with a workforce of only 36 people and an output of 56 buses in the first year. Within just a decade and a half and led by Krzysztof Olszewski and Solange Olszewska, Solaris has become one of Europe’s leading bus builders, supplying vehicles to 23 countries.

¹ Converted from reporting currency PLN according to Polish National Bank 2010 annual median exchange rate.