URGENTLY LOOKING TO EXPAND PRODUCTION CAPACITY.

Solaris Bus & Coach looks to the future with optimism and confidence. In mid-July the company rounded up the first half of the year. The results so far have been highly satisfactory, with 188 buses manufactured in the first six

months already delivered to customers. Further 312 units are scheduled to be delivered to operators until the end of the year. The number of orders received to date exceeds the original plan for this year, and fulfilling these orders will result in almost doubling the production volume.

"Our order intake this year has been extremely encouraging", said Krzysztof Olszewski, Solaris Bus & Coach chairman, commenting on the positive developments in the first half of the year. "Only after the first three months of this year our order book covered 70 per cent of our annual production capacity."

During May and June further sizeable orders were taken from customers in the Baltic States. Solaris Bus & Coach signed a contract to supply 63 low-floor buses to the Latvian capital city of Riga, with further 55 Solaris Urbino 12 buses on order from the city of Kaunas in Lithuania. 45 trolley buses have been contracted by the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, with 15 units due to be delivered this year.

Also extremely encouraging were Solaris export volumes to Germany, Switzerland and France, the markets traditionally regarded as extremely demanding. A particular success story is the steadily expanding customer base in Germany, with new cities, such as Koblenz, Bremen, Fulda, Meissen and Oberhausen being the latest to put their trust in the Polish bus manufacturer. By the end of this year more than 100 Bolechowo-built buses will operate in cities across Germany. In Switzerland Solaris are to be seen in Winterthur, Chur and La Chaux de Fonds and in France, more Solaris buses will be delivered to the Narbonne and Bayonne municipalities.

Solaris Bus & Coach has also enjoyed considerable sales success on the home ground, where the company has been the leader in the low-floor bus segment for several years. Sales volumes for the period ending in June show Solaris to be runaway leader with nearly 70 per cent share of the Polish market. A total of 67 buses had been delivered to Polish operators in the first half of the year. Production for the local market was boosted by repeat orders from long-standing customers, such as the cities of Cracow and Poznań.

Solaris continues its efforts to win new customers, and this year first buses were supplied to local city bus operators in the municipalities of Żywiec, Świerklaniec, Jastrzębie Zdrój, Jaworzno and Ostrów Wlkp.

"Our essential task for the next few months is to expand our production capacity. We want to achieve this objective by erecting a brand-new production building and optimising manufacturing processes", Krzysztof Olszewski explained.

Solaris Bus & Coach is among Poland’s largest manufacturing companies and some of the largest exporters. On the European markets the rapidly expanding company is seen first and foremost and a highly innovative manufacturer, that is extremely flexible in meeting individual customer needs and requirements. The creativity and forward-thinking of the Polish bus and coach manufacturer is best testified to by the frequency with which new technical advances are being introduced, and by the rate at which new models and versions are being added to the range. A significant new addition to the Solaris line-up last autumn was the 13-metre Solaris Vacanza 13 luxury coach. For this year Solaris Bus & Coach has also announced some surprise additions. This year’s IAA Commercial Vehicle Show at Hanover, the largest show in the commercial vehicle industry, will see the launch of the new generation of Solaris Urbino III low-floor buses as well as the premiere of a Solaris low-entry bus.

Solaris Bus & Coach
Ul. Obornicka 1, Bolechowo
62-005 Owińska
POLAND