New Flyer signs $114M contract with Metrolinx

WINNIPEG - New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX:NFI.UN) announced Thursday that it has signed a three-year contract worth up to $114 million with Ontario's Metrolinx to supply hundreds of heavy-duty transit buses.

Under the contract, Winnipeg-based New Flyer will supply up to 287 diesel or diesel-electric hybrid heavy-duty transit buses. The contract is for New Flyer's newest Xcelsior model.

Metrolinx, based in Toronto, was created in 2006 and is an agency of the Ontario government. Its mission is to integrate and improve all modes of transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.

Several Ontario municipalities and regions are participants in the latest contract, including Barrie, Burlington, Durham Region, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Milton, North Bay, St. Catharines, Welland, Windsor and York Region.

Additional Ontario municipalities may also be able to participate in this agreement providing they meet certain conditions, New Flyer said.

New Flyer said the contract is the third awarded by Metrolinx and that it has received all three.

The company has delivered a total of 378 buses to 13 Metrolinx participants under the first two contracts. Since 1988, New Flyer has delivered over 2,800 buses in Ontario, 68 of which have been the new Xcelsior models.

"We are pleased to be awarded this contract for the third consecutive time from our longstanding customers in the province of Ontario and we look forward to continuing to build these valuable relationships," said president and CEO Paul Soubry.

In April, the company announced that it plans to open a new parts distribution centre in Ontario in 2011 to serve the region with improved response time and support for a wide assortment of parts for both New Flyer and other common makes and models of transit buses.

"Ontario and specifically Metrolinx represents an important customer base for New Flyer and we are committed to providing total support solutions to better serve this region and assist our customers in reducing their total bus cost of ownership," the company said.

New Flyer is the leading manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses in Canada and the United States with 2,000 employees at three manufacturing facilities in Winnipeg and St. Cloud and Crookston, Min., as well as a parts fabrication facility in Elkhart, Ind., and parts distribution centres in Winnipeg, Erlanger, Ken., and Fresno, Calif.

Units in New Flyer, which announced the contract after markets closed, were down 30 cents at $7.56 Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.