Prevost opens service center in Winter Garden

Leading coach manufacturer Prevost has established a presence in Winter Garden. 

The company gathered with business partners and local leaders on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at Prevost’s newest Service Center, 1300 Green Forest Court, to celebrate the opening of the facility. Prevost manufactures premium intercity-touring coaches and produces conversion coaches for high-end motorhomes and specialty conversion. Prevost is also part of the Volvo Group. 

François Tremblay is vice president and general manager for Prevost and Nova Bus in North America. He said the bus traffic in Orange County — particularly from tourism — made the service center a natural fit for the area.

“It was just a matter of time  that we (come here),” Tremblay said. “We needed to be here in this area, because if you just look around, you see all the Disney buses (and) the Universal Studios buses. There’s a lot of (bus) traffic in the area, so it was just a natural fit for us to be here.”

Tremblay added that Prevost invested more than $6 million to build the facility and created 50 jobs. He said the service center will be staffed by factory-trained technicians who will be trained to work on Prevost, Nova buses and Volvo motorcoaches in addition to other motorcoach brands. 

Guy French, the Prevost Vice President and General Manager of Services for Canada and the United States, discussed the types of services that will be offered at the new facility.

“We can do any kind of repair on buses — whether it is engine repair, accident repair, warranty work,” French said. “We don’t do (coach) conversions (here). We have (third-party) partners who do conversions.”

French said although conversions are handled by third-party partners, the facility will be capable of servicing converted coaches — as well as others.

“Of course, we specialize in our own brands — which is Prevost, Volvo Bus North America and also the Nova Bus,” French said. “But we can also repair any other brands. Buses are designed in such a way that there are many common parts. … We have technicians that are trained in different brands.”

In addition to repairs, customers also can shop for used coaches onsite or have new coaches delivered to the facility. Prevost’s Winter Garden Service Center is the company’s first facility that has been designed to handle servicing coaches and doing on-site sales of used coaches.

“(This facility) will be our main hub for used buses, because we are close to the airport, (and) the Florida weather is perfect,” he said. 

Håkan Agnevall, Global president of Volvo Buses, said the new facility will help Prevost — part of the Volvo Group, along with Nova Bus — better serve its customers in the area.

“For me, Prevost is all about servicing our customers — it’s all about keeping those vehicles running,” Agnevall said. “Expanding and continuing to expand our service network is really important for all of the Volvo Group.”