established over fifteen years ago, operating from its current location for the past five and acquired by the current owners in 2007, this surrey based business is one of the leading coach operators in its catchment area. Operating from very well suited premises affording easy access into central london and across the south east via the m25, m3 and a3 motorways, this business operates a fleet of 9 vehicles including small, single deck and double decker coaches available for hire by private and institutional customers. Capacities range from a 25 seater mid range coach to a high capacity 77 seater double decker coach whilst the business also has several mid range coaches available which seat between 51-55 people. Operating predominantly in the south west area of london, the bedrock to the business is the work it carries out for the local educational authority and several local schools in its area. For a number of educational institutions this business operates the ‘school run’ on a daily basis, building on these relationships with additional school work – taking pupils to and from the local swimming pool, to and from sporting fixtures for example, enabling the business to maximise its fleet utilisation throughout the normal working day. In this sector, the business also operates as a sub contractor for another coach company in the area. Approximately 60% of the business’s turnover arises from the educational sector with the remainder coming from ad hoc bookings from local sports clubs, ‘corporates’ and private bookings for weddings and other social events, national tours and holidays. The cornerstone to the success of this business is its excellent reputation for reliability, safety and punctuality. Coaches from this business run on time all the time. Safety is most important with all coaches fitted with approved and certified safety belts. All vehicles are maintained to a high standard, to full government specification and legislation whilst highly experienced drivers ensure particular attention is given to ensuring the comfort and safety of all passengers. With a trading turnover of approximately £695,000 for the financial year ending march 2009, generating gross margins of almost £128,000 and a trading profit of almost £85,000, this business represents an excellent opportunity for an existing coach operator to extend its penetration of the sector or for a new entrant to establish an excellent foothold in the industry by acquiring a very well established and major regional player. Key strengths: having been in operation for over fifteen years, this is a very well established business benefitting from high levels of awareness in its local area and a reputation for reliability, safety and high levels of friendly, personal service. The business is also considered to be very price competitive. The business has developed excellent relationships with its customers and is recognised by the schools it works with, in particular, as being a good company to deal with. This is largely as a result of the flexible approach it takes to school work – in terms of the budgets available and in meeting travel requirements. The business operates a high standard of vehicle – the fleet is releatively new and is very well maintained. The fleet itself comprises a good range of size of vehicles, particularly good for the local roads used during school runs but also enables the business to ensure the most appropriate vehicle is used for size of the travelling party, optimising running costs wherever possible. With the school run at the beginning and end of the day, additional school work during weekdays and events running during evenings and weekends, the fleet and the business’s driving staff – the biggest overheads in the business - are frequently utilised to the maximum during the school term. Key opportunities: there is an outstanding opportunity to build on the existing services and customer base of this company. With a strong demand for its services, combined with a capacity to increase turnover, a new owner contributing fresh ideas, motivation, enthusiasm and a little investment will have every advantage of building on an excellent platform. Simply by leveraging the excellent reputation this business has built up in the schools sector – contracts come up for tender on a regular basis - with a little investment in vehicles and staff, this business could operate at a successful level for many years to come. Similarly whilst the business currently operates very close to capacity during its peak period, the school day, with additional staff there is certainly scope to increase off-peak untilisation, which for many companies operating in this sector has resulted in the development of a tours and events programme offering the possibilities of picking up highly profitable incremental business – increasing its volume of customers without significantly increasing its overheads. The fleet: the business has 9 vehicles representing a fleet to meet virtually all customer requirements. A full list of vehicles will be available subject to the completion of the usual confidentiality formalities. Marketing and advertising: well established, with such an excellent reputation and high levels of awareness created by the high frequency its liveried coaches are seen in the area – but perhaps more importantly because the business operates almost at capacity during the school term, this company has little need currently to invest heavily in marketing and advertising. The business does have a very well designed, informative and easy to navigate website that performs very well in all the major search engines for all appropriate search terms, however, above all the business benefits from the most cost effective form of marketing, strong word of mouth recommendation, testimony to the excellent service and high levels of customer satisfaction the business engenders.
