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Custom Coaches celebrate 7,500 buses

Custom Coaches chose a festive setting to celebrate the delivery of their 7,500 bus. At the BCA Conference gala dinner

Custom Coaches chose a festive setting to celebrate the delivery of their 7,500 bus.

At the BCA Conference gala dinner Mark Burgess, Custom Coaches Managing Director, took to the stage to announce this significant milestone.

“In our 53rd year of building bus bodies it is with particular satisfaction that I acknowledge Busways as the recipient of our 7,500 bus,” Burgess says.

“We are proud to have supported the Australian bus industry since 1955. We have grown with the industry. We have grown with our clients.”

If bus deliveries were included from the companies they have acquired over the years, the total number would be well over 14,000 vehicles.

The 7,500th bus delivery is on the back of a number of significant milestones recently achieved by the local body builder.

Since celebrating being the only Australian body builder to reach 50 years in 2005, Custom Coaches has been the first to build a low floor city bus with under-floor luggage, and was the first to build a CNG powered articulated bus in Australia.

Custom Coaches has also redeveloped their Smithfield plant, incorporating a dynamic line and adding a second shift working 6am to 1am, 5 days a week. This now allows 200 buses a year to be built in Sydney on a seven week build cycle.

For Busways to be the recipient of the 7,500th vehicle has special significance, with 2008 marking the 50th year of the NSW bus operator being a client of Custom Coaches.

“In April 1958 we delivered our first bus to the Rowe family. An aluminium paneled Leyland Comet for £2,425,” Burgess explains.

“Over those 50 years we have built an estimated 600 vehicles for the Rowe family and Busways.

“We are extremely proud and grateful of this achievement.

“Sincere thanks should not only go to our loyal customers, such as Busways, but also the generations of workers at Custom Coaches who have built quality Australian buses for Australian conditions for over 50 years,” Burgess says.

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