Park's Motor Group

Parks Motor Group

Overview
Owner Privately owned
Locale Scotland Scotland
Transit type Local and express bus service, Intercity bus service, Private hire
Chief executive Douglas Park
Headquarters Hamilton
Operation
Began operation 1971

Park's Motor Group[1] is a coach operator and car dealer based in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scotland. It is owned by Douglas Park who founded the business in 1971 as a bus and coach operation with three vehicles. They moved into the motor trade in 1977 with new and used car dealership in Hamilton selling Datsun cars.

Coach operations

Park's[2] are one of Scotland's largest coach operators with in excess of 420 coaches, which cater for both business and leisure travel throughout Britain and Europe. The company provides VIP coaches for most Central Scotland based Scottish Premier League football teams.

Park's operates express coach services under contract to National Express from London Victoria Coach Station to Plymouth, Newquay, Penzance, Manchester, Blackpool and Aberdeen. It also operates services on behalf of Megabus and Scottish Citylink.

The coach business was strengthened in 1996 with the acquisition of Trathens Travel Services,[3] an express coach operator running out of Plymouth and incorporating StarRiders (a well known sleeper bus operator). In late 2009, the Trathens branding was dropped completely in favour of the Park's branding.

In 2008 Park's purchased the Glasgow to Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Inverness services of Scottish Citylink.[4][5]

Car dealerships

The new and used car dealership side of the business has continued to expand and Park's now have 28 dealerships across central Scotland with franchises for a number of manufacturers ranging from Kia to BMW, including the Saab dealership in Ayr.[6]

In 2016 the group purchased Macrae and Dick, taking the total number of franchised outlets to 57 and giving the company showrooms in Inverness and Elgin for the first time, with this acquisition it meant Parks would work alongside Ford for the first time.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.