| Founded | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | John Griffin |
| Headquarters | London Borough of Camden, England |
| Area served | Greater London |
| Services | Minicab |
| Revenue | £180M |
| Divisions | Taxi, Coach, Courier, Motorcycle taxi |
| Website | AddisonLee.com |
Addison Lee is a London-based private hire company, currently the largest taxicab company in the United Kingdom.
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Co-founder John Griffin was born in Ireland to a civil engineering contractor father. Raised in Kilburn from 9 years old, he left Finchley Catholic High School with no qualifications, after contracting tuberculosis from drinking the milk of a cow he had milked on a school visit to a farm.[1]
After starting training as an accountant, his father's road and sewer building business got into financial difficulty following risky expansion. Griffin left accountancy training to help salvage the business with some success.[2]
Whilst undertaking this, and wanting a flexible position to create extra income, Griffin started working as a minicab driver.[2] After founding Addison Lee in 1975, in 1976 Griffin founded the Private Hire Car Association in response to the Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1976. As founder and Chairman of the association, Griffin steered the debate that led to the licensing of the industry within the UK.[2]
Griffin decided to move on from driving mini cabs, deciding that his best option was to start his own business. Approaching another cabbie, they started a company which today is known as West One Cars. However, his existing employer persuaded him not to leave by quadrupling his salary, which he did, but eventually decided that he would start his own business.[1]
Convinced that his new company needed a name which started with an "A" for it early in telephone directory listings, a work colleague who lived in Addison Gardens said people seemed to think this was a very posh address, which Griffin supplemented with Lee. The company was founded in 1975, with half the company owned by investor, Lenny Foster.[2]
Today, the company has a fleet of 2,800 vehicles in London, over 2,200 drivers in the fleet, with annual revenues of £180m.[1] As well as being Europe's largest Private Hire operator, Addison Lee also operates London's largest private coach company with a fleet of 100 coaches of various sizes.[1] The company carries out over 20,000 jobs every day.[3]
The company commitment to new vehicle purchasing ensures that no car within the fleet is greater than 2 years old. Addison Lee was the first within the industry to achieve both the ISO 9002 and the Investors in People accreditation.[3]
The company was listed in the 2008 Profit Track 100. Both of Griffin's sons now sit on the company's board. Lenny Foster died in 1992, but his son Daryl Foster is Chief Executive.[2]
Griffin's nephew Peter Ingram is IT director, an area in which the company spends £2m per annum, and employs 24 programmers, 16 of whom are based in Russia at the offices of Addison Lee's software partner, Haulmont Technology. The copyrighted technology allow Addison Lee to:
The result is that Addison Lee has reduced its carbon emissions by 17 per cent since January 2008, and became a member of Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s “Green500” initiative.[7]
Addison Lee's technology has won numerous awards including a National Business Award for Innovation and many green awards for reducing carbon emissions through increased efficiency.[8]
Addison Lee's software has been applied to other industries by the company's software partner, Haulmont Technology. The first client announced was JBW, a bailiff company.[9]