Williams & Partners
Valuation and Insolvency Agents

Tel: 020 3195 1405

COACH COMPANY

Sold

Established in 1971, this North London based coach company operates a fleet of 14 executive/luxury coaches (7 of which are unencumbered) with seating for up to 70 passengers, and 1 wheelchair accessible mini-bus. With an array of school contracts and private hire work, the business has generated over £1.1m in turnover in each of the last 2 years with c80% of revenue being derived from private hire work.

In addition to providing private hire and school contracts, the business owns an eco-building that contains a full MOT testing station for both internal and 3rd party customers. The MOT station was purpose built in 2013 and is 19m wide and 17m deep with an eve of 6.6m and door shutter clearance of 5m.  It comprises of two 5x17m bays with white LED lighting, one of which has a full test lane that meets the Authorised Test Facility (ATF) standards including brake roller testing with weight simulator and computer, a wheel shaker plate to check for ball joint play and a headlight beam analyser along with smoke emission tester. The other bay has work benches all round, parts shelving and 4 x 7.5 Tonne mobile column lifts which can easily be rolled out onto the 210 m²  hard standing concrete work area outside of the front of the workshop for easy under chassis washing on heavy vehicles up to 28 tonne. In addition, the testing station contains turbo pressure testing equipment, glass/screen repair equipment, other MOT test equipment and a 30ft steel lorry container full of consumables parts and tyre stock.

The business operates from a yard in a light industrial park in North London and has a total footprint of 2,235m2 including the office and MOT station of which 1860m2  relates to hard surfaced, fenced land for parking for up to 30 coaches.

The premises are currently subject to a lease with 34 years remaining at a current annual rent of £50,000.

However, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Government mandated that schools should close until September and other outdoor/indoor events should be stayed for the foreseeable future. As a result, the Company’s revenue stream has dried up and although the Government has provided relief for many industries, the coach industry has not received any direct support. As a result of this the Company furloughed all staff and has since given redundancy notices to the majority of its staff. Notwithstanding this, the business has received recent enquiries for new school contracts and for MOT work on a number of 3rd party coach fleets which the Directors are looking to secure.

The Company has engaged Williams & Partners Ltd to find a buyer for the business either as a going concern (preferably) or by way of a purchase of the assets and goodwill on a break-up basis (possibly through an insolvency process), as the fall in revenue has meant that it is unable to pay its debts as they fall due and the Company is insolvent on a cashflow basis (but not necessarily on an asset basis). Having recently secured a discretionary relief payment of £25,000, the Company does not yet need to close its doors but if a sale is not secured within the next two weeks then it remains a distinct possibility that the business will cease to trade and be forced to enter liquidation.

If you are interested to know more about the above opportunity, please note that offers must be received by no later than 12:00pm on Friday 21 August 2020 with a sale concluded by no later than close of business on Wednesday 26 August 2020 and therefore only parties that are able to work within this time frame should respond. Williams & Partners Ltd reserve the right to close the bidding early or extend the deadline, without liability.

Preference will be given to companies currently within a similar industry as we would consider that specialist knowledge is essential to the future success of the business.

Due to the confidential nature of this sale, interested parties will be invited to sign a non-disclosure agreement before further details can be released.

If you are interested in finding out more about the above opportunity, please contact Antony Berg of Williams & Partners Ltd, Valuation and Insolvency Agents on 020 3195 1407 or 078 0303 5445 or write to me at antony@wapl.co.uk.