Northern Ireland Conservatives’ Chairman and Ballymena businessman, Irwin Armstrong, has welcomed the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to the County Antrim town and hailed local company, Wrightbus, which is designing and building the next generation of London buses.
“Boris came to North Antrim today, with the secretary of state, Owen Paterson, to take the new prototype bus, which is built by Wrightbus, for a test drive. It’s wonderful to see the Conservative Mayor in Ballymena, particularly at a thriving local company, which is punching above its weight in the UK market and further afield.”
“Wrightbus is one of our greatest manufacturing and exporting success stories. It’s an inspiration to other local businesses and entrepreneurs and it shows that Northern Ireland can compete at the very highest level on an international playing field. Mark Nodder, the Wright Group’s managing director, estimates that contracts from Transport for London will create 150 jobs in Wrightbus and the same again in the wider local economy.”
“It’s an exceptional achievement for a Northern Irish company to design and build the London bus which will go into operation in the year of the Olympics. This iconic design is already driving local business and local jobs; let’s hope it can also help drive Boris to success next year, when London holds its next mayoral election as well as the next Olympic Games.”