New Flyer was founded by John Coval in 1930 as the
Western Auto and Truck Body Works Ltd in Manitoba. The company began producing buses in 1937, selling their first full buses to Grey Goose Bus Lines in 1937, before releasing their Western Flyer bus model in 1941, prompting the company to change its name to
Western Flyer Coach in 1948. In the 1960s, the company further focused on the
urban transit bus market. In 1971, the then-financially struggling Western Flyer was sold to the Manitoba Development Corporation, an agency of the government of
Manitoba, and renamed
Flyer Industries Limited. In 1974 the opposition
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba had urged the
NDP government in power to divest Flyer Industries from government ownership. On July 15, 1986, Jan den Oudsten, a descendant of the family who formed Dutch bus manufacturer
Den Oudsten Bussen BV, purchased Flyer Industries from the Manitoba government, changing its name to
New Flyer Industries Limited. New Flyer designed and tested North America's first
low-floor bus in 1988 and delivered the first production model, called the D40LF, to the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1991. In 1994, New Flyer delivered the first
compressed natural gas bus in North America and the world's first
hydrogen fuel cell powered bus. In 1995, the company delivered the first low-floor
articulated bus in North America to
Strathcona County Transit. In March 2002, New Flyer was acquired by
KPS Capital Partners, an investment company that specializes in turning around struggling businesses, for $44 million. Later that year Jan den Oudsten retired as CEO. He was later inducted into the
American Public Transportation Association's Hall of Fame for his work at the company. In 2003,
King County Metro in
Seattle placed an order for 213 hybrid buses, the world's first large order for hybrid buses. On December 15, 2003, New Flyer was purchased by
private equity firms
Harvest Partners and
Lightyear Capital. The company's CEO, John Marinucci, called the purchase an indicator that the company's operational and financial turnaround had been accomplished. On August 19, 2005, New Flyer became a
publicly traded company on the
Toronto Stock Exchange, renaming the company to
New Flyer Industries Canada ULC and creating the publicly traded parent company
NFI Group Inc. 2005 also saw a restyling of New Flyer's popular low-floor coaches with new front and rear endcaps, to modernize and streamline the exterior appearance of the bus. In June 2012 New Flyer, in a joint venture with
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the
Manitoba Government,
Manitoba Hydro and
Red River College, unveiled a
fully electric battery-powered bus. In May 2012, New Flyer and
Alexander Dennis announced a
joint venture to design and manufacture medium-duty low-floor bus (or midi bus) for the North American market. The bus, called the New Flyer MiDi, was based on the design of the
Alexander Dennis Enviro200. Alexander Dennis engineered and tested the bus, and it was built and marketed by New Flyer under contract. During the partnership around 200 buses were delivered to 22 operators in Canada and the U.S. In May 2017, New Flyer and Alexander Dennis announced their joint venture would end and production of the bus would transition to Alexander Dennis' new North American factory in Indiana, where it is produced alongside the double-deck
Enviro500 series bus. Alexander Dennis was later purchased by New Flyer's parent company, NFI Group, in 2019. == Facilities ==