Volvo Ownership
Leyland Bus was acquired by a management buyout led by Ian McKinnon in January 1987, and it looked like the Tiger would continue as before. Just over 12 months later in March 1988 Volvo purchased the business, bringing the United Kingdom's two best-selling coaches, the Leyland Tiger and Volvo B10M, under common ownership. Volvo was aware that Leyland had a loyal following, and that the Tiger had a good reputation, and so the Tiger continued.
In 1989 despite slow sales, Volvo reassured Tiger loyalists that the chassis was there to stay, positioning it to compete with the Dennis Javelin. But sales remained slow and in 1990 in an attempt to shift stock, Volvo had Plaxton body forty chassis. Twenty-five of these bodies were the only Plaxton 321 bodies built, this being the Plaxton derivative of the Duple 320 body acquired when Duple closed.
Volvo acknowledged that the Tiger and B10M were broadly similar, and whereas Leyland had sold 3,500 Tigers since the model's launch, Volvo had sold 20,000 B10Ms during the same period. The penultimate major buyer of the Tiger, Shearings, switched to the B10M for 1991, and Volvo decided to cease production and close the factory at Farington.
Read more about this topic: Leyland Tiger
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