From Gosport to Preston

It’s not difficult to speculate on the mixed emotions Preston Bus staff are experiencing right now. To sell to Stagecoach or not. 40 per cent of the workforce is said to have the shares they bought when the borough council sold to employees in 1993. The remainder of the workforce, including new staff, have no stake, though there is also an equal amount of equity held in trust that may be part-distributed their way. So, there are tensions.

Reports suggest shareholders could each benefit from a £30,000 windfall upon Stagecoach buying the business. That’s a very tempting sum even if, right now, investing it brings little return.

There are very few precedents regarding this sort of sale. The most noteworthy was the sale in 1995 of employee owned People’s Provincial Bus Co-ownership Ltd to First. It’s worth reflecting on the process through which Provincial went.

• In 1983, newly-formed Provincial Bus Company took over the merged operations of the Gosport & Fareham Omnibus Company (t/a Provincial) & Hants & Dorset’s Fareham garage. Provi had in fact been managed as a separate entity by H&D since 1971.
• During the National Bus Company sale process, the then general manager was initially in talks with I recall Harry Blundred’s Transit Holdings but negotiations failed and the GM joined and promoted what was in 1987 to be NBC’s first and only employee share ownership plan (ESOP).
• 80 per cent of the workforce took an equal and not insignificant £750 stake in the business. That’s over £1,500 at today’s prices. They had much pride in bringing back the company to private ownership. It’s future was literally in their own hands.
• In 1990, employees decisively rejected two Southern Vectis bids.
• After some negotiations in 1995, shareholders sold to First. This was a difficult period for staff. Reports suggest that in the previous two years People’s Provincial profits were falling, owing in part to Transit Holdings’ post-Stagecoach minibus Portsmouth reforms from-1991. Yet, shareholders were often protective of all they had achieved. Those reluctant shareholding employees were nevertheless attracted by what at the time was described as ‘a massive cash windfall’.
• There was much public disquiet and sadness in Gosport and Fareham at the sale.
• The sale to First nevertheless went through.
• Eight months later First, as owners of Provincial and by now having bought Portsmouth’s Red & Blue Admiral from Transit Holdings, rationalised in south Hampshire and withdrew 40 vehicles.

More on Provincial's long and distinguished history at Regent8