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Company type | Private company |
---|---|
LSE: ROL | |
Industry | Bus & coach services |
Founded | March 2005 |
Headquarters | Oldbury, Birmingham, England |
Key people | John Gunn (Chairman) Simon Dunn (CEO) |
Revenue | £85 million (2022) |
£4 million (2022) | |
Owner | Bob Dunn Simon Dunn John Gunn |
Website | www |
Rotala Limited [1] is a company established in 2005, which owns a number of bus operators in England. It was listed on the Alternative Investment Market from 2005 until 2024.
In March 2005, Rotala was listed on the Alternative Investment Market. In August 2005 it agreed on terms to purchase Flights Hallmark. [2]
In October 2006, the business of Zak's Buses, Birmingham was purchased [3] and rebranded Central Connect; this was followed in December 2006 by Birmingham Motor Traction (20 vehicles). [4] In June 2007 Ludlow's of Halesowen (21 vehicles) was purchased [5] [6] followed in July 2007 by North Birmingham Busways (26 vehicles) of Erdington. [7]
In April 2007, Flights Hallmark commenced operating services in Bristol under the Wessex Connect brand after winning the contract to provide two Bristol park & ride services, and in June 2007 purchased the bus routes of South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach with 68 buses. [8] [9] [10]
In March 2008, the Go West Midlands business was purchased. [11] At this stage Rotala merged all its Birmingham based operations under the Diamond Bus brand. In January 2011, Preston Bus was purchased from Stagecoach. [12] [13]
In January 2013, Rotala purchased depots in Kidderminster and Redditch from First Midland Red with 36 buses. These were integrated into the Diamond Bus operation. [14] [15] [16] In March 2015, Rotala acquired South Lancs Travel from D&G Bus and Julian Peddle and rebranded it Diamond Bus North West. [17] [18] [19]
In June 2015, the 17 vehicle Wings Luxury Travel operation in London was purchased and integrated with Rotala's existing Heathrow operation. [20] In December 2015, Rotala purchased the Heathrow-based operations of OFJ Connections. [21]
In July 2017, Hanson's Local Buses in Birmingham was purchased followed in August 2017 by the route service business of Go-Goodwins in Manchester and the Hotel Hoppa business from National Express in October 2017. [22] [23] [24] [25] Earlier the same year the majority of Wednesfield operations and several vehicles were purchased from Arriva Midlands.
In February 2018, Central Buses in Birmingham was purchased and integrated into Diamond Bus. [26] [27] Wessex Bus ceased operations on 1 September 2018, with eight services and nine vehicles taken over by Stagecoach West. [28] [29]
In August 2019 Rotala purchased First Greater Manchester's Bolton depot with 18 routesand integrated into Diamond Bus North West. [30] [31]
In January 2022, the purchase of Claribel Coaches of Birmingham was announced allowing the current owners to focus on the associated Birmingham International Coaches business. Diamond confirmed that the Claribels name would not be retained and all services and buses would be operated under the Diamond Bus name from April 2022. [32] [33] A number of routes, however, were transferred to National Express West Midlands due to the expiration of the tenders operated on behalf of Transport for West Midlands. [34]
In April 2022 the acquisition of the bus operations of Johnsons Coaches, which operates under the Excelbus brand, were purchased. [35] [36] All bus operations will operate under the Diamond Bus brand from 29 May 2022 and will be operated from Redditch depot. The private hire and coach operations are not included in the deal and will continue to trade as Johnsons Coaches. Some Johnsons routes were started early "to assist Johnsons with some of their current operational difficulties". [37]
In August 2022, it was announced the Rotala Group had purchased Midland Classic, marking Rotala's entry into the East Midlands. Midland Classic was rebranded Diamond East Midlands, with buses painted into Diamond fleet livery and the company directly controlled from Rotala's Tividale headquarters. [38] [39]
In January 2024, Rotala delisted from the Alternative Investment Market with directors Bob Dunn, Simon Dunn and John Gunn purchasing the business in a management buyout. [40] [41] [42]
Rotala's first acquisition was Surrey Connect in 2005, when Centra decided to sell its Addlestone operation. The business was purchased by Flights Hallmark. Surrey Connect developed and continued to grow and won contracts for a number of Surrey County Council tendered routes. Rotala sold the company in June 2007 to Wiltax. A few months later the Wiltax operations were acquired by Arriva.
The Go-Ahead Group Limited is a multi-national transport group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While the majority of its operations are within Great Britain, it also operates services in Ireland, Australia, Singapore, and Norway. Go-Ahead was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange prior to being purchased by Kinetic Group and Globalvia by 2022.
Midland Red was a bus company that operated in The Midlands from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Northampton to the Welsh border. The company also manufactured buses.
Arriva Midlands is a bus operator providing services in the East Midlands and West Midlands areas of England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
Go West Midlands was a bus company in the West Midlands. It was a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group in March 2006.
Diamond Bus Ltd., trading as Diamond West Midlands, and also operating under the West Midlands Bus brand identity, is a bus operator in the West Midlands. It is a subsidiary of Rotala.
Probus Management was a bus company in the West Midlands which was acquired by the Go-Ahead Group in March 2006.
People's Express was an English bus company in the West Midlands which was acquired by Probus Management in June 1998 and then by the Go-Ahead Group in March 2006.
Diamond Bus Ltd., trading as Diamond North West, is a bus operator providing services in the districts of Bolton and Wigan in Greater Manchester operating an extensive commercial network as well as franchised Bee Network bus services on contract to Transport for Greater Manchester. It also serves some areas of the districts of Salford and Trafford.
First Midland Red Buses, trading as First Worcester, is a bus company operating services in Herefordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
South Gloucestershire Bus & Coach Company Ltd was a bus and coach operator operating school bus services under contract to Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council and coach services under contract to Megabus.
Hallmark Connections Limited, trading as Diamond South East, is a bus operator in South East England and, through the Hotel Hoppa operation, in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of Rotala.
Midland, previously known as Choice Travel, was a bus company operating mostly in the Wolverhampton and Walsall areas of the West Midlands. Some services also operated in the Staffordshire and Shropshire area.
Central Buses was a bus company based in Birmingham, England.
Julian Peddle is an entrepreneur who has worked in the bus industry since the early 1980s, having owned or part-owned numerous bus companies. He spent 11 years as co-owner of Stevensons of Uttoxeter between 1983 and 1994, having previously been its traffic manager. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he ran Status Group, a group of small bus companies spread across England which included BakerBus, Choice Travel and MK Metro. He was a major shareholder in Tellings-Golden Miller and Centrebus Holdings before their sale to Arriva.
'First Manchester, Midlands & South Yorkshire is an operating unit of FirstGroup operating in the English Midlands, Manchester and South Yorkshire. The unit was formed in 2008 with the merger of the management and administration of First Potteries, First Worcester and First Leicester. On 1 June 2020, First Midlands merged with First Manchester and First South Yorkshire. During a group restructure in 2022, Worcester moved from Midlands control to First West & Wales.
The Wellglade Group (WG), is a transport group operating bus and tram services in the English Midlands.
Wessex Bus was a bus operator in the West of England that operated from June 2007 until September 2018.
D&G Bus is a bus operator based in Stoke-on-Trent. They operate local & interurban bus services in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent. D&G Bus is the largest bus operator in Cheshire East & the second-largest in North Staffordshire.
Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel is a bus and coach operator based in the Warwickshire town of Henley-in-Arden.
Diamond East Midlands, formerly Midland Classic, is a bus company from Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. Since August 2022, the company is a subsidiary of Rotala.
Media related to Rotala at Wikimedia Commons