ABBA Commercials

History

The Pangolin is an armoured public-order patrol vehicle on the heavy-duty Defender 110 'Puma' chassis, designed for the PSNI to replace its ageing RUC-built Tangi fleet. The contract was won by OVIK, the specialist armoured-vehicle firm founded in Dorset in 2008 by brothers Jez and Duncan Hermer, which went into liquidation in April 2020. WarWheels' record of the type gives the manufacturer as 'Ovik Solutions and ABBA Commercials', and notes production in two batches — 60 first-batch 'B1' vehicles entering service in 2011 and 30 upgraded 'B2' vehicles in 2012, the latter running concurrently with Penman Engineering's rival ALR after Penman protested the follow-on award.

That single credit is the whole of the traceable record. What ABBA Commercials contributed — bodywork, fabrication, assembly or something else — is not stated anywhere found, and no OVIK or PSNI material traced during this research mentions the firm at all. Several unrelated UK businesses trade or have traded under the name ABBA Commercials, including a commercial vehicle bodybuilder in Widnes and St Helens whose published work is tipper bodies for the construction and recycling sectors with no mention of defence, police or Land Rover work, and a firm listed at Dover. None of them could be confirmed as the company named in the Pangolin credit, so no address, founding date or trading status is recorded here.

Vehicles in this registry (1)

• OVIK Pangolin Armoured police patrol vehicle · deep skirts · protective mesh guards · converted

Sources & citations

• Pangolin Armored Land Rover Mark 4 Index ('Manufactured by: Ovik Solutions and ABBA Commercials'; two batches — 60 'B1' vehicles in service 2011 and 30 upgraded 'B2' in 2012; Penman Engineering permitted to build a similar version after protesting the contract) ↗ — WarWheels.Net (accessed 2026-09-10)
• OVIK (formed by brothers Jez and Duncan Hermer in 2008, based in Dorset; 193 Pangolins in service with the PSNI and Merseyside Police; company went into liquidation in April 2020) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
• ABBA Commercials — UK commercial vehicle body builder (a firm of this name in Widnes/St Helens building Predator Ultimate tipper bodies for construction and recycling; no defence, police or Land Rover work mentioned — recorded here only to show the name is not uniquely identifying) ↗ — ABBA Commercials (accessed 2026-09-10)