Kelvin Central Buses
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Dumbartonshire Lanarkshire | |
Service type | Bus operator |
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Kelvin Central Buses was a bus operator in Scotland. Formed as a subsidiary of the Scottish Bus Group in July 1989 from the merger of Kelvin Scottish and Central Scottish, it was sold in a management buyout and in July 1998 became part of First Glasgow.
History
In March 1989, Central Scottish's legal name was changed in preparation for its July 1989 merger with Kelvin Scottish to Kelvin Central Buses (KCB) in preparation for privatisation.[1][2] KCB had a difficult beginning with ongoing industrial action. By the time the dispute was resolved a number of new operators had stepped in to take on the abandoned services. Whereas Kelvin had been one of the more successful of the Scottish Bus Group subsidiaries, Central was financially weakened, suffered from heavy competition and burdened with a large debt.[3]
KCB was the largest operator in
KCB relied on second hand purchases until it became profitable. In 1993 the company purchased its first new buses;
Many of the smaller independent operators that competed heavily with Kelvin Central were successfully purchased, paving the way for Kelvin Central to become the dominant operator once again in much of Lanarkshire but also giving it a rather mixed and sometimes rather elderly fleet.[3]
At that time,
The Monopolies & Mergers Commission found the Stagecoach stake in the combined company to be against the public interest and ordered Stagecoach to divest its 20% share in the firm early in 1995.[5][6]
The ownership issue was not to be resolved until June 1996, when FirstBus purchased SB Holdings, including Stagecoach's 20% shareholding.[7][8]
A new all-over red livery was adopted for the combined company, and the KCB Network trading name was replaced with Kelvin, and later First Kelvin. In 1998, Kelvin Central Buses was rebranded as First Glasgow after the sale was approved.[9][10]
References
- ^ Companies House extract company no SC014210 KCB Limited formerly Kelvin Central Buses Limited formerly Central Scottish Omnibuses Limited
- ^ SBC's Kelvin next in line Commercial Motor 26 July 1990
- ^ ISBN 9781445654850.
- ^ Summary of SB Holdings Limited & Kelvin Central Buses Limited: A report on the merger situation Competition Commission April 1994
- ^ Stagecoach Holdings plc and SB Holdings Limited: A report on the merger situation Competition Commission 1995
- ^ Stagecoach set record of same The Independent 24 December 1995
- ^ Takeover nets bus workers £35,000 The Independent 10 May 1996
- ^ FirstBus plc and SB Holdings Limited: A report on the merger situation Competition Commission 1997
- ^ Companies House extract company no SC127012 First Glasgow No 2 Limited formerly Kelvin Central Buses Limited
- ^ Bus takeover is finally cleared Archived 7 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine The Herald 1 August 1998
External links
Further reading
Fowler, Max (July 1995). "Buses Profile: Kelvin Central Buses".