GRT Group

This article describes the bus group, for the Grampian Regional Transport bus company and successors/predecessors, see First Aberdeen

GRT Group plc was a bus operating company in the United Kingdom. Created in 1989 as a holding company to effect the buyout of Grampian Regional Transport (GRT), it grew by acquisition and in 1995 merged with Badgerline to create FirstBus plc, forerunner to worldwide transport company FirstGroup plc.

History

The GRT Group, as GRT Holdings,^[1] was formed as a holding company to effect the purchase of Grampian Regional Transport (GRT), the city bus operator in Aberdeen, Scotland, by its employees. Motivation for the buyout was the 1988 announcement that the Scottish Bus Group was to be privatised, sparking fears that GRT could be acquired by a larger group and asset stripped.^[1] The buyout was achieved on 20 January 1989.^[2] General Manager Moir Lockhead, together with four others in a management buyout team, took a 51% stake in the new company, with employees gaining 33%, and Aberdeen Asset Management and 3i taking the remaining 16%.^[1] At the time GRT comprised a fleet of 200 buses and 500 employees.^[3]

Subsequently, the parent company GRT Group was listed on the stock market as GRT Group plc. The group grew by acquisition of some of the other newly privatised bus companies in the UK.

Acquisitions

As GRT Holdings:^[1]

• Midland Scottish, September 1990 (ex SBG)
• Northampton Transport,^[3] October 1993 (ex former council company)
• Leicester CityBus,^[3] November 1993 (ex former council company)

As GRT Bus Group plc:^[1]

• Eastern Counties,^[4] July 1994 (ex NBC)
• Eastern Scottish, October 1994 (as SMT^[1]) (ex SBG)
• Lowland Scottish, November 1994 (ex SBG)

Midland, Eastern and Lowland Scottish, and Eastern Counties, were regional companies, with operating territories stretching over large areas comprising town and interurban services. The Northampton and Leicester operations were town based networks, like Grampian.

Firstbus

In June 1995, GRT group plc merged with Badgerline, another large UK bus group, to form FirstBus, launching a new corporate identity. In 1998 FirstBus became FirstGroup plc.

Livery

As GRT Group, the company had developed a form of corporate livery dictated by an arrangement of a horizontal and diagonal bands over a base colour. The colour scheme of the bands were derived from colours representative of the subsidiary company, while the base colour was chosen as cream. The companies retained their own version of a company logo. Some companies developed an alternate livery with a gold band for the introduction of new buses.

With the emergence of Firstbus, the former GRT companies retained their coroporate livery, with the individual company logos replaced with the company name in a new standard corporate typeface, along with a styilised f symbol representing FirstBus.

Moir Lockhead

Sir Moir Lockhead had joined Grampian Transport as general manager in 1985.^[3] He remained with the GRT Group and as of 2008 was Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of First Group. In 1996 he was made an OBE for services to the bus industry, and in 2008 was knighted.

See also

• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

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