The bus manufacturer Van Hool has not yet found a private partner to provide much-needed investment to keep the company afloat. There is a real possibility that the bus plant in Koningshooikt (Antwerp Province) will close with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Bus manufacturer Van Hool has still not found a private partner. Could the end be nigh for bus production in Flanders?
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The Flemish cabinet will discuss the situation at Van Hool at a meeting to be held soon and will also examine whether a private partner can still found and what support measure can be taken to save the bus company. The Flemish Government has also ready said that it is only prepared to invest in Van Hool if a private partner is also prepared to invest in the bus manufacturer. However, as yet no private sector investor has been found. When news of the Van Hool’s financial difficulties broke around half of the companies staff resigned.
Busses built by Van Hool have been sold throughout the world. The company has been making buses at Koningshooikt, near Lier since 1947. The company has been struggling since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic brought the travel sector to a complete standstill, causing Van Hool's order books to suddenly dry up. Since then the company has struggled to fill its order books again. A lack of orders has meant that Van Hool was forced to lay off around a third of its 2,500 staff at the start of the year. A crisis manager was appointed co-CEO of the company.
Competition was a step ahead
Meanwhile, Van Hool’s competitors that produce electric bus makers have been taking more and more custom away from the Flemish bus-builder. Most recently, Van Hool missed out an order for 92 electric buses for the Flemish public transport company De Lijn. The order went to a Chinese company.
The transport journalist Geert Van Lierde told VRT News that rival bus builders were much earlier in relocating some of their production to countries where wages are lower. Mercedes has been building buses in Turkey since the 1980s and Volvo has been building buses in Poland since the 1990s.
It wasn’t until 2013 that Van Hool opened its plant in Macedonia. The factory there is not only very modern, but wages costs are significantly lower than here in Belgium. Geert Van Lierde fears that the production department at Koningshooikt might close with the loss of between 600 and 800 jobs.
It now remains to be seen whether the Flemish government can still do anything to assist Van Hool. The Flemish authorities already support the family-owned business through guarantees on loans. The question is whether more can and indeed may be done without flouting EU state aid regulation.