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Birmingham pair merge as Take Me accelerates national brand plans Mark Bursa Take Me Group’s Birmingham subsidiary TC Cars has announced a merger with local rival Heritage Cars, with both businesses planning to operate under the Take Me umbrella. The move, which creates a combined fleet in excess of 600 cars, is the latest step by the ambitious taxi company consolidator to build a national chain and brand. Managing director David Hunter said more mergers and acquisitions would follow, including further Birmingham operators, and the Take Me brand would be introduced to all the group’s operations later this year. Traditional brands would be retained “for the foreseeable future”, Hunter said, with the “powered by Take Me” line and logo being introduced below the existing names. The Birmingham merger had good synergy, Hunter said, with the two firms operating in neighbouring areas of the city with slightly different customer profiles. Heritage Cars served a slightly more up-market clientele, with TC more of an inner city service. Both companies were Autocab users, though other group businesses were on the iCabbi system. Hunter said he planned to develop a bespoke system for all Take Me companies and migrate all operating companies to that. Hunter explained that the Take Me group would be structured “like McDonalds”, with some businesses directly owned and others operating a franchise. Take Me is backed by MBH Corporation, an investment company with a global portfolio of SMEtype businesses. MBH has funded a number of Take Me acquisitions, but not all. Another source of funding had also been identified and is likely
Take Me Group adds north Midlands duo in acquisition drive Mark Bursa Fast-growing taxi group Take Me Group has made two more acquisitions, adding Stoke-on-Trentbased Intercity Taxis and Westside Taxis in nearby Crewe to the roster. The Intercity deal is worth between £3 million and £4m, and is again backed by MBH Corporation plc, a diversified investment holding company, which has based its transport portfolio around the former ADT operation in Leicester, run by David Hunter (pictured) and Ashley Butcher.
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to fund some of the future deals in the pipeline. “We’re planning to conclude a deal a month this year,” said Hunter, though the short-term would see a clutch of deals coming on board. “There are five deals that are due to fall in the next six or seven weeks, including a large city in the south-west, one on the south coast, one in the north-west, one off the A14 and another in the west midlands.” These join ADT of Leicester, Steve’s Cars in Huntingdon, VGT in Farnborough, Intercity of Stoke and Westside of Crewe, as well as the TC Cars/Heritage operation within the fast-expanding group. Other areas such as Scotland and South Wales have also been identified, as well as within the M25. Hunter said flexibility was the key to doing deals with taxi companies. Some owners were happy to go with the MBH way of offering bonds, but “others want cold hard cash”, he said. With all deals, he said Take Me encouraged the owner or the “number two in the business” to stay on board. “We’re not bankers or venture capitalists, we’re taxi people,” he said. “We always give MBH the op-
portunity to invest, but sometimes the SME accounts are not filed the way a PLC likes them, so we buy the company and tidy up.” Ultimately the Take Me Group could become fully owned by MBH, though Hunter believes it is equally likely that the group could be floated as a separate PLC at some time in the future. “At the moment we’re on phase one – buying fleets,” he said. “Phase two is developing technology. It’s like Uber in reverse!” The long-term plan is to rebrand to Take Me everywhere, creating a national brand with its own app. Some of the taxi company names were “a bit old hat”, Hunter admitted, though their local strength was not to be underestimated, especially as there was a national trend during lockdown for customers to support local brands. So initially, the local brands will be retained, with Take Me branding added – a move Hunter compared to the Euronics chain of electronics shops, which has grip buying to compete with national chains, but retains local shop names. Eventually the branding will flip, with Take Me becoming the primary brand and the local brand secondary, and in time, the local brands could eventually disappear – the way regional television stations such as Granada and Central eventually became part of ITV. Hunter believes “chimney pot” private hire operators will have a better future than those focused on corporate clients. “Zoom is not going to replace business meetings completely, but corporate travel is not just going to return to pre-Covid levels, perhaps ever. By 2030, we’ll be travelling less. But a lot of people working at home have got rid of their cars, and are more likely to use cab services as a result.”
MBH has now acquired 26 companies across a number of sectors around the world in a highly active acquisition drive. Intercity Taxis was founded more than 50 years ago and operates a fleet of around 120 taxis. The company’s largest account is Staffordshire County Council, and other local authorities use the company to provide school run services. The Westside deal is different and does not involve MBH. Westside proprietor Stephen Robinson has sold his business to Take Me directors John Gardner and David Hunter, who funded the deal themselves. “The 159 strong fleet starts our venture away from the midlands into the north-west,” said Hunter. Intercity, founded in 1969, generated £2.1m
in revenue for the year ended May 31, 2020 with pre-tax profits of around £500,000. The takeover will be settled mostly by way of an MBH listed bond which will pay out in five years. MBH is using its bond programme to fund its acquisitions, and this deal means MBH will have used approximately €37m of its bond programme leaving a balance of €13m to be used if required. David Hunter, CEO of Take Me Group, said: “Intercity Taxis is a historically brilliantly run firm, operating within a stable and established market. This presents a huge opportunity for continued growth for the transportation vertical within the MBH portfolio.”
[from left] Suky Sangha of Heritage Cars, Robert Wollaway of TC Cars, Hardip Sangha of Heritage and Andy Williams of TC celebrate the merger.
JUNE 2021
