Custom Denning

Custom Denning is an Australian bus manufacturer owned by Scott Dunn, whose family also owns the Rotala Group and its Diamond Bus operations in the UK. Scott Dunn moved to Australia in 2013, where he initially purchased and developed Telford's Bus & Coach, an established bus and coach dealership based in Sydney. He subsequently acquired two long-established Australian bus manufacturers, Custom Bus and Denning Manufacturing, which were merged to form a single business under the name Custom Denning. Today, Custom Denning is Australia's oldest bus manufacturer and has become a leader in the development of low-floor battery-electric buses. As the company looked to expand into the European market, the growing demand for zero-emission buses in the UK presented an ideal opportunity. With the Dunn family's ownership of both Custom Denning and Rotala, the latter's operating companies were seen as a natural launch customer for the manufacturer's products in Britain. In 2023, the UK Government invited bus operators to bid for funding through its Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) programme to support the introduction of additional battery-electric buses. Rotala submitted bids covering its operations in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Preston, with all of the proposed vehicles to be supplied by Custom Denning. The proposals included: Fourteen electric buses for Diamond Bus West Midlands to operate services 4H and 45. Ten electric buses for Preston Bus for use on services 19 and 100. Six electric buses for Diamond East Midlands to operate services 8 and 9 in Staffordshire and South Derbyshire. In the event, only the East Midlands bid was successful, with funding initially awarded for six vehicles based at Burton upon Trent. This order was later increased to eight buses. In addition to the ZEBRA-funded vehicles, Custom Denning supplied three battery-electric buses for Diamond South East's operations at Heathrow Airport, together with a single demonstrator vehicle for Diamond Bus West Midlands. These deliveries marked the manufacturer's first entry into the United Kingdom market and represented an important milestone in its ambitions to establish a presence in Europe.

39001    

Vehicle 39901 entered service with Diamond Bus from its Tividale depot on Wednesday 18 June 2025. As the Custom Denning buses represented a completely new vehicle type for the UK market, Rotala was required to obtain full UK type approval before a Certificate of Initial Fitness (COIF) could be issued. As with any new bus design, the first vehicle had to undergo an extensive programme of testing and assessment to demonstrate compliance with UK construction, safety and accessibility standards. Once type approval had been granted, the initial batch of Custom Denning electric buses was able to enter service. The original intention had been for vehicle 39901 to form part of a fleet of fourteen buses for Diamond Bus West Midlands, funded through the Government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) programme. However, when the West Midlands funding bid proved unsuccessful, Rotala elected to purchase a single vehicle for the operation using its own resources. Today, 39901 is normally allocated to Diamond Bus service 45 between West Bromwich and Walsall, where it operates alongside three conventionally powered diesel buses. The vehicle provides valuable operational experience with the new Custom Denning design while also demonstrating the company's commitment to introducing zero-emission technology into its UK fleet.