Editorial: Another major success for an outstanding Northern Ireland manufacturer, Wrightbus

​Even before its stunning new order, Wrightbus was a remarkably successful company.

#​The Ballymena-based bus maker, which was established just after World War Two, had already had remarkable manufacturing triumphs.

In 2012, for example, it produced the newest version of London’s distinctive and much-loved red Routemaster buses. The original version of these vehicles, which had a hop-on-hop-off platform, had been gradually withdrawn from the capital. Boris Johnson, the then mayor, wanted to bring them back – and he chose a Northern Ireland company to fulfil such a prestigious project, Wrightbus.

Now Wrightbus, which faced financial difficulties a mere five years ago, will supply up to 1,200 new zero-emission buses to operator Go-Ahead, a transport group based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne that offers services around the world.

Wrightbus was already doing well this year. Now it has its biggest ever order, which will support many hundreds of jobs including those of the more than 2,000 people who already work there.

Northern Ireland has an economy that has been best with problems since the Troubles, indeed well before them. It had heavy industry, such as the shipyard, that was already facing challenges in the postwar economy. Then the years of violence made NI increasingly dependent on UK taxpayer funds. To this day we are deeply dependent on handouts.

It seems a long way since that mighty era a century ago when Belfast was easily the industrial capital of Ireland. Wrightbus is symbolic of a high-tech return to manufacturing in its most impressive form.

No wonder Mr Johnson chose it to build his bus. No wonder former chancellors such as George Osborne have toured its factory. And now Go-Ahead has trusted it with such an important order.