Nova Bus will lay off 9% of its workers, or 125 of the 1,350 in Quebec, over the next year to restructure operations at its Saint-Eustache plant, the company confirmed Monday afternoon.
“In line with the announcement of the closure of our Plattsburgh plant last June, Nova Bus has decided to review its business model to refocus on the Canadian market,” said Alexandrine Gauvin of Nova Bus, which is owned by Swedish giant Volvo.
“This decision requires us to adapt the size of our organization to this new reality to become a more profitable and competitive company. These layoffs are related to a restructuring that was necessary following the closure of this factory,” she added.
Nova Bus told the Journal it understands “the concerns and uncertainties” that come with such news, but is confident it will remain a “respectful and responsible employer.”
The LFSe+ is Nova Bus's 12-meter (40-foot) electric bus model. Nova bus
$583 million contract
Last May, Nova Bus announced that the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) had awarded it, as an agent company, an order for 339 40-foot LFSe+ buses ($583 million) with an additional 890 optional buses ($1.5 billion -dollars). for a value that could exceed $2 billion.
The chassis of the buses ordered will be manufactured in Saint-François-du-Lac and assembled at the Saint-Eustache factory in the MRC des Deux-Montagnes.
“We have delivered more than 6,000 buses to Quebec since 1997,” said Ralph Acs, president of Nova Bus.
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