Optare said that 2017-18 has seen continued support and integration with ALL, including a significant infusion of equity (£58.22m) to substantially reduce Optare’s debts.

According to the report, the net debt of the group stood at £14.7million as of March 31, 2018, when compared to £54.1million a year ago. The additional investment in Optare, converting its debt to equity, was meant to provide a strong balance sheet to support both growth and development plans.

ALL has increased its shareholding in Optare to 99.08%, cementing management support and collaboration at all levels of ALL with the implementation of Optare’s business plans. The strategic positioning of the businesses through further alignment of Optare’s procurement and engineering functions with ALL was also undertaken, the Optare management said in the annual report. ALL increased its stake in its UK subsidiary Optare to 98.31%, from 75.11% in 2017. ALL acquired 26% stake in Optare in 2010 with a view to spreading the wings to the international bus market and increased its stake to 75.11% over a period of time.

Fickling said Optare’s strategy for 2018-19 will focus on increasing sales in the UK with Solo, Versa, Metrocity and Metrodecker, with a specific focus on electric product, further growth in export sales of Solo, Metrocity and Tempo and targeted profitable growth of the parts division of the business in the UK. The company will continue the focus on development of products and commercial relationships relating to the UK and export markets, besides making innovation on sustainable green bus technology, with a focus on fuel efficiency and EV technology across the product range.

Graham Belgum, president, Optare, said in 2018-19 the company’s next generation of electric vehicles ( EVs) to be launched will use higher density battery technology and stay true to the philosophy of reducing whole life costs by building lightweight and efficient buses. Due to the economic challenges in the bus market, the company expects that the UK bus market will remain relatively flat in 2018-19. Therefore , Optare’s focus will be on maintaining diesel single deck market share in the UK and continuing to grow market share with the support of ALL through export and EV products, Belgum said.

On the international front, Belgum said that the company continues to develop dealer relations in the West Asia and Hong Kong. In April 2018 Optare signed a deal to supply 94 Solo buses to the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai. The Hong Kong Solo demonstrators began in-service trials in February 2018, the trials are going well and it is expected that orders will follow. Optare is also developing a similar opportunity for the introduction of the Solo into Singapore.