Bus industry entrepreneur Bill Hiron has sold Eastern Transport Holdings, the parent of bus operators Stephensons and NIBS, to an employee trust<\/h5>\n

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\nBill Hiron: \u2018the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nEastern Transport Holdings, the parent company of bus operators Stephensons of Essex and NIBS Buses, has been sold to an Employee Ownership Trust by proprietor Bill Hiron.<\/p>\n

Following the completion of the ownership transfer on October 27, Hiron continues as chairman under Eastern Transport Holdings\u2019 new structure alongside an essentially unchanged leadership team. Dean Robbie remains managing director, Gary Raven continues as finance director, and Mark Sayer has moved into the newly created role of engineering director. He previously served as a fleet engineer.<\/p>\n

Hiron acquired Stephensons in 2001 after leaving a senior role with FirstGroup. Since then, the business has grown significantly under his leadership, including the acquisition of NIBS Buses in 2018. Stephensons, founded in 1972 with a single coach, operated mainly from its Rochford base until Hiron\u2019s purchase. It has since expanded with multiple depots and now operates routes extending from Essex into Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.<\/p>\n

Today, the wider business, now under the umbrella of Eastern Transport Holdings, has an annual turnover of \u00a316m, a fleet of 140 buses, and employs 200 staff, collectively serving nearly four million passengers annually. The sale excludes Galloway Travel Group, which is not part of this transaction.<\/p>\n

Hiron told Passenger Transport there were several reasons\u00a0behind the move. Firstly, he was now at the age where he wanted to wind down a little, but he also saw the structure of the wider industry changing significantly over the next few years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a child of deregulation. I started my first proper job in September 1986, and deregulation happened a month later<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a child of deregulation,\u201d he said. \u201cI started my first proper job in September 1986, and deregulation happened a month later. We\u2019re moving to a more contracted environment \u2013 there\u2019s nothing wrong with that, and I say that as someone who has run London bus contracts in the past, but it\u2019s not what interests me. I\u2019m an entrepreneur at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiron said the business was also now at the size where the options to sell it were limited. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re selling a corner shop,\u201d he said. He was also particularly concerned about the company\u2019s unique culture being disrupted if he sold Eastern Transport Holdings to a major group.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the business\u2019s success has been down to the culture we\u2019ve created,\u201d Hiron said. \u201cWhen the big groups acquire an independent operator, they always say they will keep the culture, but it never happens. I was really keen to avoid that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had mulled the options over the last year. Several months ago, an Employee Ownership Trust was suggested as a potential solution
\nto his quandary.<\/p>\n

It seemed only right and fair that the people who had helped build the business should be the ones to benefit<\/p>\n

\u201cI had dismissed it, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea,\u201d Hiron said. \u201cIt seemed only right and fair that the people who had helped build the business should be the ones to benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since last weekend, the business has been employee-owned, with all shares held in trust on behalf of the employees. Three trustees have been appointed, comprising Hiron, an employee representative, and an independent chairperson. The ownership structure gives staff a stake in the business without personal risk or expense. Ayrshire-based Shuttle Buses is believed to be the only other UK bus operator with such a unique ownership structure.<\/p>\n

Hiron reported a very positive reception to the move from staff. He also expected it would assist with recruitment and retention efforts in the future. <\/p>\n

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\nThis article appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The post Employees are owners of Stephensons parent<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Bus industry entrepreneur Bill Hiron has sold Eastern Transport Holdings, the parent of bus operators Stephensons and NIBS, to an employee trust \u00a0 Bill Hiron: \u2018the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea\u2019 \u00a0 Eastern Transport Holdings, the parent company of bus operators Stephensons of Essex and NIBS Buses, has been sold to an Employee Ownership…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}