Optare bus distributor, Bus Corp Oceania (BCO) and Bonluck distributor Bus and Coach Sales Australasia (BCSA) have announced a tie up for sales and service support for both Optare and Bonluck across the country and in NZ.
As part of the arrangement BCO will become the Bonluck dealer for NSW, Victoria, SA, WA and New Zealand, while BCSA will become the dealer for Optare in Queensland and Northern NSW handling sales and service for the brand in both regions.
The announcement of the expansion of the Optare and Bonluck dealer networks follows the recent establishment of BCO’s New South Wales office at Smithfield in Sydney’s west and comes as the company opens its new sales and support office in the Auckland suburb of Wiri where Joe Crickett has joined the team to manage BCO operations for New Zealand.
According to Bus Corp Oceania general manager, Jason Pecotic, the appointment of BCSA as Optare’s dealer in Queensland and Northern NSW and BCO’s sign on as the Bonluck dealer across the rest of Australia and NZ underlines the commitment to both Optare and Bonluck as serious players in the bus and coach markets down under.
“BCSA has a long history in the bus and coach industry with a strong reputation for customer service and is ideally situated at Yatala near Brisbane to service the major Brisbane and Gold Coast markets as well as the larger Queensland and Northern NSW markets,” said Jason Pecotic.
“BCSA’s extensive industry knowledge and experience will deliver peace of mind to all our Optare customers while BCSA’s in house workshop is fitted with the most advanced equipment and staffed by industry’s leading technicians,” he added.
“Between them BCSA’s directors Rodd Hood and Athol McKinnon have over 80 years of experience in the bus and transport industry and they both have a passion for the bus and coach industry that is second to none and that will be invaluable as Optare builds its base in Queensland and across Australia.”
“BCSA’s vision is to be an innovative leading supplier of quality passenger vehicles with its core values being quality, safety, reliability and affordability which aligns perfectly with Optare.”
Similarly, Rodd Hood and Athol McKinnon say they are enthused by the tie up with BCO and Optare as well as BCO becoming the Bonluck dealer across Southern Australia.
“Optare is such an exciting and innovative brand with so many clever features including their lightweight designs and we are very enthusiastic about expanding Optare’s footprint in Queensland,” said Rodd Hood.
“Athol and I have also been intimately involved over the past decade in the design of Bonluck buses to ensure they are built for the unique conditions and climate in Australia and NZ,” he added.
“We are pleased to be working closely with BCO to establish an extensive sales aftersales support network for the Bonluck brand across Australia and NZ and handling Optare in Queensland and Northern NSW,” he added.
Since start up in mid 2017 BCO has grown from its base at its head office in Melbourne and has seen a surge of interest in the Optare product since its debut at the Bus and Coach Expo on the Gold Coast last September.
Jason Pecotic said it has quickly become apparent that there is strong interest across Australia in the Optare product and its lightweight, fuel-efficient qualities.
“Just as BCO has expanded its operations in NSW, its clear that many Queensland fleets are also considering Optare purchases for their operations and the agreement with Rodd, Athol and the BCSA team will enable us to better service those customers,” said Jason.
“BCSA will have Optare demonstrator buses available from its Yatala operation for Queensland fleets to trial on their own routes enabling them to benchmark the Optare buses against their current vehicles to see the efficiency gains that can be made,” he said.
Jason Pecotic revealed that on a recent visit to the Bonluck factory in China he saw the full range of products being built to specification for our conditions including luxury coaches for Australia , articulated buses for NZ and nine-meter city buses being built for Australia and NZ along with coach bodies being built on European chassis for both Australia and NZ.
“Bonluck a dedicated specialist bus and luxury coach builder building more than 5000 vehicles a year and basically, every bus and coach option they have is now available and from BCO’s perspective we are very excited to be able to offer every combination available alongside Optare product,” said Jason Pecotic.
The appointment of BCSA as the Optare dealer in Queensland and Northern NSW comes on the back of the first Optare deliveries of a 114 bus contract for Tranzit in the New Zealand capital of Wellington.
