SBG calls for buyout
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• The Scottish Bus Group is urging the Government to back an employee buyout as a single unit, along the lines of the successful National Freight Consortium buyout. SBG has written to Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind saying that it wants the 9,000-vehicle strong bus fleet to stay under Scottish control.
Ian Irwin, chairman and chief executive of the Scottish Transport Group, says: "The group board welcomes the opportunities from privatisation, but believes that these clear Government aspirations will not readily be achieved by disposing of SBG on a fragmented basis. The board believes that the best way of meeting the Secretary of State's objectives would be to privatise SBG as a whole, preferably by way of an employee buyout."
Irwin maintains that the group's employees have contributed materially to SBG's success since its formation in 1969: "It would be most appropriate if this success story was reflected in employees being permitted to take a leading interest in the privatisation of their group," The call follows a move by staff at SBG's Bannockburn depot to create the Stirling Bus Workers Co-operative, in order to bid for their depot, its 69 buses and equipment. The workers, currently part of the Midland Scottish Company, would operate their services as a co-operative after privatisation. The Scottish Co-operative Development Committee has advised them that a buyout, using their own money and finance raised by a mortgage on the building, is feasible.
SBG's turnover last year was 2147 million. It carried 300 million passengers and covered 200 million kilometres.