Rotala

Short description: Bus operating company in England

Rotala plc

Type| Public

Traded as

| LSE: [Script error: No such module "Stock tickers/LSE". ROL]
Industry| Bus & coach services
Founded| March 2005
Headquarters|

Oldbury, Birmingham, England

Key people

| John Gunn (Chairman)
Simon Dunn (CEO)
Revenue|  £96.5 million (2021)[1]

Operating income

|  £3.4 million (2021)[2]
Website| www.rotalaplc.com

Rotala plc[3] LSE: [Script error: No such module "Stock tickers/LSE". ROL] was an Alternative Investment Market listed company, established in 2005, which owns a number of bus operators in England.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Acquisitions
* 3 Former operations
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## History

Hallmark Plaxton bodied Volvo B12B in March 2010 Diamond North West Mercedes-Benz Citaro, at Leigh bus station, August 2019

In March 2005, Rotala was listed on the Alternative Investment Market. In August 2005 it agreed on terms to purchase Flights Hallmark.[4]

## Acquisitions

In October 2006, the business of Zak's Buses, Birmingham was purchased[5] and rebranded Central Connect; this was followed in December 2006 by Birmingham Motor Traction (20 vehicles).[6] In June 2007 Ludlow's of Halesowen (21 vehicles) was purchased[7][8] followed in July 2007 by North Birmingham Busways (26 vehicles) of Erdington.[9]

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.[10][11][12]

In March 2008, the Go West Midlands business was purchased.[13] At this stage Rotala merged all its Birmingham based operations under the Diamond Bus brand. In January 2011, Preston Bus was purchased from Stagecoach.[14][15]

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.[16][17][18] In March 2015, Rotala acquired South Lancs Travel from D&G Bus and Julian Peddle and rebranded it Diamond Bus North West.[19][20][21]

In June 2015, the 17 vehicle Wings Luxury Travel operation in London was purchased and integrated with Rotala's existing Heathrow operation.[22] In December 2015, Rotala purchased the Heathrow-based operations of OFJ Connections.[23]

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.[24][25][26][27] 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.[28][29] Wessex Bus ceased operations on 1 September 2018, with eight services and nine vehicles taken over by Stagecoach West.[30][31]

In August 2019 Rotala purchased First Greater Manchester's Bolton depot with 18 routes. The routes had an approximate PVR of 170, and part of the deal involved renting 125 buses from First Manchester. The acquired business has been integrated into Diamond Bus North West.[32][33]

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.[34][35] 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.[36]

In April 2022 the acquisition of the bus operations of Johnsons Coaches, which operates under the Excelbus brand, were purchased.[37][38] 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".[39]

In August 2022, it was announced the Rotala Group had purchased Midland Classic for £2 million, marking Rotala's entry into the East Midlands. Midland Classic is to be fully integrated as part of the Rotala Group as Diamond East Midlands by 30 November 2022, with buses painted into Diamond fleet livery and the company directly controlled from Rotala's Tividale headquarters.[40][41]

In early 2024, Rotala intendeds to delist from the Alternative Investment Market with directors Bob Dunn, Simon Dunn and John Gunn to purchase the business in a management buyout.[42]

## Former operations

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.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.rotalaplc.com/cmsUploads/investor/files/ROTALA_Annual-Report-2021_Web.pdf
2. ↑ Rotala Annual Report, 2021
3. ↑ Rotala plc Companies House
4. ↑ Proposed Acquisition of Flights Hallmark Limited Rotala 29 August 2005
5. ↑ Acquisition of Zak's Bus and Coach Services Limited Rotala 20 October 2006
6. ↑ Acquisition Rotala 27 December 2006
7. ↑ Placing & Acquisitions Rotala 18 June 2007
8. ↑ Acquisition of Ludlows of Halesowen Limited Rotala 21 June 2007
9. ↑ Trading Update/Acquisition Rotala 30 July 2007
10. ↑ History Rotala
11. ↑ About Wessex Rotala
12. ↑ Rotala buys in the West Midlands & South West Transit 29 June 2007 page 7
13. ↑ Disposal of Go West Midlands Go-Ahead Group 3 March 2008
14. ↑ Acquisition Rotala 25 January 2011
15. ↑ Rotala buys Preston Bus for £3.2million Bus & Coach Professional 25 January 2011
16. ↑ Acquisition in Worcestershire Rotala 24 January 2013
17. ↑ Rotala snaps up FirstGroup's bus operations in Worcestershire for £1.5 million The Bus People 24 January 2013
18. ↑ First sells Worcester bus services Worcester News 25 January 2013
19. ↑ Rotala buys South Lancs Bus & Coach Buyer 4 March 2015
20. ↑ "Rotala buys South Lancs Travel" Coach & Bus Week issue 1178 3 March 2015 page 7
21. ↑ Diamond Bus North West Limited Rotala
22. ↑ Rotala acquires Wings Bus & Coach Buyer 3 June 2015
23. ↑ Rotala to buy part of OFJ Route One 25 November 2015
24. ↑ Change of Ownership for Hanson's Local Buses Hanson's Local Buses
25. ↑ Rotala plc purchases Hanson's Local Bus Diamond Buses 28 July 2017
26. ↑ Corser, John. "Rotala buys another bus business". https://www.expressandstar.com/news/business/2017/08/29/rotala-buys-another-bus-business/.
27. ↑ Rotala buys Hotel Hoppa Route One 17 October 2017
28. ↑ Rotala buys Central Buses Coach & Bus Week 2 February 2018
29. ↑ Rotala buys Central Buses for £1.95 million Route One 2 February 2018
30. ↑ Important Changes for Wessex Bus Wessex Bus 20 July 2018
31. ↑ Yong, Michael (2018-07-20). "Bus company to close – services cancelled and jobs lost" (in en). https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/wessex-bus-close-services-42-1806005.
32. ↑ Acquisition in Manchester Rotala 27 June 2019
33. ↑ Diamond North West services are expanding Diamond Bus North West 25 July 2019
34. ↑ "Claribels Welcome | Diamond Bus". https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/claribels-welcome/.
35. ↑ "Diamond to acquire Claribels bus operations" (in en-GB). 2022-02-01. https://wmbu.org.uk/2022/02/diamond-to-acquire-claribels-bus-operations/.
36. ↑ "Service changes from Sunday 24th April 2022" (in en-GB). 2022-04-01. https://wmbu.org.uk/2022/04/service-changes-from-sunday-24th-april-2022/.
37. ↑ "Johnsons Welcome | Diamond Bus". https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/johnsons-welcome/.
38. ↑ "Diamond to acquire Johnsons ExcelBus bus operations" (in en-GB). 2022-04-29. https://wmbu.org.uk/2022/04/diamond-to-acquire-johnsons-excelbus-bus-operations/.
39. ↑ "Diamond to take over some Johnsons services from Monday 9th May 2022" (in en-GB). 2022-05-05. https://wmbu.org.uk/2022/05/diamond-to-take-over-some-johnsons-services-from-monday-9th-may-2022/.
40. ↑ "Midland Classic bought by Rotala as group grows reach". routeone. 3 August 2022. https://www.route-one.net/business-deals/midland-classic-bought-by-rotala-as-group-grows-reach/.
41. ↑ Peat, Chris (3 August 2022). "Rotala acquires Midland Classic". Bus & Coach Buyer (Peterborough). https://www.busandcoachbuyer.com/rotala-acquires-midland-classic/.
42. ↑ Rotala move out of publicly-traded ownership set for Q1 2024 Route One 20 November 2023

## External links

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