Established and profitable minibus and driver hire service

Our client is a provider of minibus plus driver and coach plus driver services serving primarily the East Midlands of England. The company holds an International Operators Licence covering 20 vehicles as well as a local taxi licence for standard minicab operations.

Established for 20 years under its current ownership, the company has averaged £476,000 turnover in its last three full financial years. Average annual pre-tax profit over the same period has been £108,841, equivalent to a pre-tax profit margin of 22.8%. On an average month, the company banked £48,172 in cash each month during the last full FY.

Range of services

In the past few years, the company has primarily concentrated on fulfilling its contract to two departments of a local council. In addition to major ongoing contracts they have with a local council, their corporate and leisure travel businesses continue to grow.

They provide a private coach-and-driver hire service offering wheelchair-friendly transport, airport transfers, day trips, event transport, school contracts, theme park transport, coach trips, corporate event transport, agency worker transport & more.

Demand in other areas continues to grow, especially for the provision of executive coaches (clients include Barclaycard whose HQ is local) and wheelchair-accessible transport (the company’s council client has asked them to provide 12 more vehicles). The company is also picking up a growing amount of work providing rail replacement buses.

The company operates a fleet of thirty vehicles:

• 4 eight-seaters
• 26 sixteen-seaters (of which four are executive Mercedes coaches)

25 of the vehicles are owned and 5 are leased. All eight seaters are part of the company’s private taxi license.

Marketing

The company has a five-page brochure website with separate pages which promote the company’s wheelchair-accessible options, their minibus tax service and their coach plus driver hire service.

Our client has built sufficient 3rd party citations to rank in third place in the Google Local Pack. This is the section of a Google search engine results page (SERP) usually placed below the paid-for adverts and above the natural/organic results.

There is a significant opportunity to improve market share by bolstering the company’s online presence. There are around 2,000 low competition searches a month for services provided by our clients.

Staff levels

There are a total of 44 staff working for the business in addition to the owner and the office manager, the vast majority of whom are drivers. Passenger assistants are also employed on buses taking children with special educational needs to school.

The operation manager is there to ensure that all contract and ad-hoc journeys have a driver, to ensure that vehicles are entered for maintenance and MOT when required, and compliance with all laws and regulations to which the business is subject.

Points to consider

Our client’s business is very well-established and respected in its local area. It provides services daily to two council departments. Its drivers are very well-trained and loyal. It has a fleet of vehicles allowing it to serve many different markets, particularly the school and disability market. For the current owners of the business, this has been 20 years spent profitably building up a brand of some note.

There is real promise here for someone with the skills and the motivation to take the company to its next stage and beyond. Our client has the fleet, the contacts, a substantial International Operators Licence and its own local taxi licence for regional mini-cab services. To enquire about this business, please fill in your details below.