Dennis Specialist Vehicles

  • Dennis Brothers Limited
  • Dennis Motors Limited
  • Hestair Dennis
  • Dennis Specialist Vehicles
Company typePublic listed company
IndustryAutomotive
PredecessorDennis Brothers
Founded1895 (1895)
FounderJohn and Raymond Dennis
Defunct2007 (2007) (As TransBus International)
Fate
  • Municipal vehicles sold 1999
  • Public service vehicles sold under receivership in 2004
Successor
Headquarters,
Number of locations
(Plants) Guildford, Warwick, Scarborough, Anston, Blackpool, Wigan, Falkirk, Belfast
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • John and Raymond Dennis
  • David Hargreaves
  • Geoff Hollyhead
Products
Parent
  • independent (1895-1972)
  • Hestair Group (1972-1989)
  • Trinity Holdings MBO
  • Dennis Group (1989-1998)
  • Mayflower Corporation (1998-2001)
  • Transbus International (2001-2004)
  • Alexander Dennis (2004-present)
WebsiteDennis Group website

Dennis Specialist Vehicles was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford, building buses, fire engines, lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made to order to the customer's requirements and more strongly built than mass production equivalents. For most of the 20th century the Dennis company was Guildford's main employer.

Following a decade of financial difficulties original shareholders sold out in 1972 and Dennis's ownership has since passed through quite a number of hands. No Dennis haulage trucks have been built since 1985. The last Dennis fire engine left the Guildford factory in 2007. The Woodbridge site was sold, and a new factory, built in Slyfield in 1991, remained in use by a lineal business descendant, bus-maker Alexander Dennis, until 2020, when it too was closed down.

The Dennis brand is still used on Alexander Dennis buses, Dennis Eagle dustcarts and Dennis mowers.