New Flyer to supply up to 27 heavy-duty transit buses to Sorel, Que.

WINNIPEG - Bus builder New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX:NFI.UN) announced a deal Tuesday to supply up to 27 heavy duty transit buses to Sorel, Que., its first sale to a Quebec-based transit agency it decades.

No financial details were available on the contract, which includes 12 firm orders for New Flyer's low-floor, 40-foot Xcelsior model bus and an option for 15 others.

"This award marks the first sale of New Flyer low-floor buses to a Quebec-based transit agency since 1970," the Winnipeg-based company said in a release.

New Flyer said the sale to La Regie de la Gare de Sorel was a direct outcome of the appointment of A. Girardin Inc. of Drummondville, Que., to sell and support its buses in the province.

Girardin will provide local pre-delivery inspection services, field support and parts support for the buses.

"We are absolutely thrilled to have taken this first step toward establishing a New Flyer presence in Quebec, a province in which we have not been able to sell buses for many decades," said president and CEO Paul Soubry.

"We are confident that the New Flyer buses will be well-received and will set a new standard for transit systems and private operators in the region. The combination of New Flyer buses and local Girardin service and support now provides an option for Quebec-based operators."

Dave Girardin, president and CEO of A. Girardin Inc., said the contract would help the company "blaze new frontiers into the heavy-duty segment of this market, just as we had anticipated when we established our alliance with New Flyer less than two months ago."

New Flyer employs more than 2,000 people at manufacturing facilities in Winnipeg and St. Cloud and Crookston, Minn., a parts fabrication facility in Elkhart, Ind., and three parts distribution centres in Winnipeg, Erlanger, Ky., and Fresno, Calif..

Its stock was up two cents at $7.53 Tuesday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.