Alexander Dennis

Alexander Dennis, commonly known as ADL and formerly named Transbus, are a British bus manufacturer that was founded in 2001 and has since grown to become one of the largest bus manufacturers worldwide. Their name comes from Alexander and Dennis, two former bus manufacturers that merged together to form ADL.

ADL have also owned the Plaxton coach business since 2007. Plaxton remain an independent subsidiary of the main ADL business.

History

ADL were formed on 1 January 2001 when well-established bus manufacturers Alexander, Dennis and Plaxton merged together to form Transbus International. All existing Alexander, Dennis, Plaxton and Northern Counties (the latter having been bought by Plaxton in 1999) products continued in production for a time, rebadged as Transbus products.

On 31 March 2004, Transbus International entered administration. On 17 May of that year, Plaxton was sold through a management buyout and resumed trading as an independent coachbuilder. The remaining Alexander and Dennis parts of the company were purchased by a consortium including Stagecoach Group owner Brian Souter later in 2004; Transbus International were at this point renamed to Alexander Dennis.

From 2005, ADL started introducing their Enviro-range of buses to replace products inherited from Alexander and Dennis, such as the Plaxton President and Dennis Dart. Throughout the next few years several factories were closed as ADL focussed production in a core few production centres.

In May 2007, ADL purchased Plaxton, reuniting the former Alexander, Dennis and Plaxton businesses once again. Plaxton were made a standalone subsidiary who largely handled ADL's coach business, although they did also venture into the bus market as well with the Plaxton Primo.

In 2012, ADL purchased Australian bus manufacturer Custom Coaches. However, just two years later, Custom Coaches entered administration and was acrimoniously sold in a management buyout in a similar fashion to Plaxton ten years previously.

From 2012 onwards, ADL committed a large amount of their work to Project MMC, which was formally revealed in 2014. It featured a relaunch of their key Enviro-range and competed with similar releases from other companies at that time.

Products

Current

• Enviro200
• Enviro200H
• Enviro200 MMC
• Enviro300
• Enviro300H
• Enviro350H
• Enviro400
• Enviro400H
• Enviro400 MMC
• Enviro500
• Enviro500H

Former

This list only includes products built by Transbus and ADL, including former Alexander and Dennis products that were rebadged and continued production by Transbus and ADL. Alexander and Dennis products which ceased production prior to the formation of Transbus in 2001 are not listed here.

• ALX200
• ALX300
• ALX400
• ALX500
• Dart SLF
• DM5000
• Enviro200 (Transbus)
• Enviro200H (Transbus)
• Javelin
• R-Series
• Trident 2
• Trident 3