Optare plc is a bus manufacturer and importer based in Leeds and Blackburn, UK. The company operates from two main business units, Bus Manufacturing and Product Support. The company currently manufactures a full range of bus types from minibuses to full-size single deckers, from Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire, with a new double-decker under tests. As well as bus manufacturing, the group operates a sales division, and the Product Support division parts and service network covering the UK.

The Optare name originated in 1985 from the remnants of the Roe operation, in a time of changing and challenging market conditions for UK bus manufacturers, following the breakup of the nationalised manufacturing industry dominated by British Leyland and its subsidiaries, and the breakup of the traditional home markets through the deregulation of bus services and privatisation of the Scottish Bus Group, National Bus Company, PTE operations and many municipal companies.

In the consequent upheaval in markets and demand through the 1980s and 1990s, the Optare business underwent several changes in management. Although it never rose to the order book numbers of the larger post-1980s manufacturers such as Volvo or Dennis, Optare benefited from the opportunity to develop close relationships with particular customers not necessarily tied to larger suppliers, through political or corporate ties. Wilts & Dorset and Reading Buses became notable loyal Optare customers, with several high profile new London operators also choosing Optare as a market differentiator, such as Harris Bus's use of the Optare Excel. Optare also introduced several technological innovations, with an early electric buses trial, introducing the first UK low-floor double decker, the Optare Spectra, and the ground breaking Optare Solo ("so low") low floor midibus, both in 1997.