Jonckheere

Jonckheere is a motor coach and bus builder, founded in 1881 by Henri Jonckheere in Roeselare, Belgium. Presently, the company is known as VDL Jonckheere.

History

In 1881, Henri Jonckheere began to build horse-drawn carriages in the town of Beveren, near Roeselare in the province of West-Flanders, Belgium. 1902 saw Jonckheere build his first "luxury automobile". In those days many, largely wooden bodies with their typical styling, were built upon several famous chassis such as Minerva and Rolls-Royce.

1922 saw Henri's son and successor Joseph Jonckheere built his first bus body. Car bodies were still a large part of the production until the early 1930s when Jonckheere moved all of the production to bus and coach building, making Jonckheere the Belgian market leader. Jonckheere was also becoming a famous and well-known name throughout Europe.

After the second world war, there was a huge need for vehicles for road transport, which included of course a lot of buses and coaches. Jonckheere was able to meet quickly all new market trends. The product range also included luxury touring coaches, city and intercity buses, articulated buses but also heavy duty buses for worldwide export and several special bodies. In the 1970s, Jonckheere launched the Bermuda range that started to appear in the UK in 1977 and stayed in production until 1982.