Jo Bamford is in full flight. Eyes blazing and arms waving, he’s gassing on about hydrogen-powered buses. As the heir-apparent to the £3.5bn JCB empire, Bamford parted company with the “family firm” three years ago in a bid to further his zero emission ambitions.

While he seems destined to return, sticking around at JCB in the meantime was never an option.

“Oh that would be dull, dude,” he says. “That’s my initials, that’s my name. I love diggers and it is something I grew up in, I started on the shop floor and everything else, but it is quite predictable.”

Bamford has instead grabbed the political hot potato that is “Boris Bus” maker Wrightbus.

Based in Northern Ireland’s Protestant heartland of Ballymena, the business has plenty of similarities with JCB. The company was founded in 1946, just one year after Bamford’s grandfather set up his digger maker.

The Wright family retained control of the business throughout the years. Sir William Wright – who started the business with his father – was, until last year, still on the board. His son Jeff was chief executive.

But while JCB has continued to prosper, reporting profits of £310m for 2018, the Wright family’s manufacturing empire came crashing down after plunging into the red and running out of cash last autumn.

Bank of Ireland, its lender for decades, balked at a request for new money. The game was up for the 73-year-old firm; administrators were called in and nearly 1,400 jobs were lost.

That was until Bamford, educated at a Roman Catholic school in North Yorkshire run by monks, stepped in to resurrect the business.