Meet Frank Barrett, CEO at Specialist Vehicle Technology Company: WN VTech

WN VTech has a rich heritage, dating back to the 1820s. Today, we provide technologies for a range of specialist vehicles, putting sustainability and technological excellence at the heart of our operating model.

Covering everything from a ground-breaking range of zero-emission buses and luxurious ceremonial cars, to unrivalled efficient emergency services vehicles, each brand works together to deliver positive social change and a reduced environmental impact through design excellence and cutting-edge innovation.
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
We’re a specialist vehicle manufacturer with a mission to drive the future of sustainable vehicle technology. Our group consists of several brands in the bus, ceremonial and emergency services vehicle markets and we’re focused on becoming a world-class technology developer and adding to our strengths in electrification and accessibility. The collaboration between our innovative brands also makes us unique.
We’re passionate about making travel accessible for all. So, when we see our work in the real world making people’s lives a little bit easier every day, it makes us proud.

Meanwhile, our work on electrification and efficiency also naturally helps tackle the energy crisis and climate change. Low emission vehicles provide so many benefits to public health, public finances, the environment and energy security. They’re crucial to the net zero transition, and ensuring humanity lives up to the promise of the Glasgow climate agreement. And they’re crucial to reducing the geopolitical costs of relying on petrol, diesel and oil imports.
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Being a technology-led business means you have to continually improve and innovate. We invest substantial resources in research and development each year. For instance, we’re pioneering electrification technology. We’re manufacturing battery electric vehicles and embedding fuel cell technology with the aim of ensuring every vehicle we produce is as environmentally friendly as possible. We’re also focused on efficiency and designing lightweight structures to improve fuel economy.
 

What can we hope to see from WN VTech in the future?

 
It’s a case of building on our recent successes. We’ve passed a milestone of over £100m in order book sales, and we’ve enjoyed five years of consecutive growth.

We’ll continue to invest in R&D and innovate to grow our technical capabilities across the group – collaboration and knowledge sharing between our businesses is something that is really important to us. We’re continuing to make the most of the strategic acquisitions we’ve made in recent years, too. This includes JM Engineering and VCS Limited.

In line with this innovation, we’re expanding our facilities both in the UK and overseas. This is important as we grow internationally. We employ over 600 people worldwide, and we want to do even more to develop the next generation of engineering and tech talent.
It’s an exciting time for us here at WN VTech.