MCI unveils first redesign of commuter coach in 25 years
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2017 (2355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
New Flyer Industries and its Motor Coach Industries division may not have hundreds of different product models on the market but the ones they do have are big and bulky requiring complex production infrastructure and are sold in significant numbers.
That means it’s not easy to start introducing brand new designs on the fly.
So it’s not surprising it took Motor Coach Industries about two and a half years to complete a re-designed version of its D-series commuter/transit coach, its first D-series re-design since 1992.
Recently unveiled at the American Public Transit Association trade show in Atlanta, the new D45 CRT LE features a curb-level ramp and second door that opens directly into a low floor entry (LE) vestibule with passenger seating. The bus has a modern re-designed exterior and includes a new forward-door entry that opens to a spiral entryway.
“It’s been a long time since we made major changes to the D-coach,” said Ian Smart, president of the Motor Coach division. “This is the first variant in what will be a line of vehicles designed for our public market customers.”
The re-design process, which was all done in Winnipeg, included extensive market outreach to hear what customers liked and didn’t like about the old D-series coach sold to transit authorities and which accounts for about 40 per cent of MCI’s sales. The other 60 per cent of its business comes from its J-series coaches sold to the private tour and charter operators. MCI comes out with annual slightly new J-series model-year changes.
In addition, Smart said there a couple of other models in development
“They are all designed to fit into a specific place in the market,” he said. “They are more focused on what the customers are specifically asking for. We believe delivering the new products will help us regain market share.”
MCI has dominated the motor coach market in North America for many years peaking at about 75 per cent market share in 2002. But because of changes in ownership and spotty investment over the years, market share fell by about 38 per in 2015, the year New Flyer bought it.
In 2016, MCI picked up another one per cent of the market share and Smart believes they are on track to gain a little more this year.
Paul Soubry, the president and CEO, “We needed to fix the product. We also needed to fix the culture, the quality and the cost of operations.”
New equipment, better working conditions — both on the shop floor and in the offices — and a committed owner has made a difference with MCI’s 1,770 Winnipeg employees (including MCI-owned parts manufacturer, Frank Fair Industries). The company has also hired 150 employees this year — the first time that’s happened in a long time.
Soubry believes the buy-in from employees while the shop was upgraded, processes modernized and the information technology system integrated with New Flyer’s has been the key to the success.
“This (MCI) was an iconic brand that maybe lost its way,” Soubry said. “After we bought it and started to invest and folks realized we were serious and not buying it to shut it down and move everything to Flyer the response from employees has been unbelievable.”
The new re-designed transit coach is not necessarily in response to a big uptick in commuter coach demand. But MCI’s tour and charter coaches enjoy increased demand in step with the economic dynamics of the U.S. and Canadian economies which are on the upswing.
The company said it intends to start shipping the new D-series coach in the fall of 2018 with an all-electric version by 2020.
Smart said the demand for all-electric highway coaches is not at the same league as demand for electric zero emission transit buses is.
On the transit side, New Flyer is the overwhelming leader in that emerging market. Although there were less than 300 battery-electric buses shipped in North America last year, New Flyer accounted for more than 80 per cent of the total number.
The establishment of a new energized MCI division can only help New Flyer’s already strong position in the bus and the capital markets.
With the release earlier this week of a strong third quarter orders and backlog report, Chris Murray, an analyst with AltaCorp Capital, said, “We believe the company is continuing to execute well in what is a solid market with expectations for margins and free cash flow to improve.”
New Flyer will release its third quarter financial results in three weeks.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Martin Cash
Reporter
Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.