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Take Me moves into Yorkshire and West Country with two takeovers Mark Bursa Take Me has added a second Yorkshire private hire firm to its growing portfolio of UK businesses. Star Cars of Catterick is also the acquisitive company’s second UK takeover of 2022, following the takeover of Station Taxis of nearby Malton, as it builds a national network of taxi operators. And in a separate move, Take Me has acquired Taunton operator A1 Ace Taxis, giving it an increased presence in the south-west. Star Cars has been run by Veronica Boyle Rowlatt for the past 17 years, in which time it has built a fleet of around 40 cars and MPVs, running on an Autocab dispatch system. She said it “felt right” to sell the business to Take Me. “It’s been my baby for 17 years, and we’ve built a great team. But we chose Take Me because of the people.” She is leaving the taxi industry to concentrate on her property business. Take Me director John Gardiner said there was a good fit with the similar-sized Station Cars business, another 30-plus car operation. “Three
or four companies are coming on board with us in Yorkshire,” he said. Fellow Take Me director David Hunter said: “It is exciting times at Take Me as we keep expanding and adding brilliant local businesses to our network fleet. Together we can bring our skills and infrastructure from being a national brand but build on the local expertise of these amazing well established taxi operators.”
Taunton operator A1 Ace taxis has been run by Mike Davis for the past 14 years. He said: “It’s a good opportunity to buy into something at a national level, and work with other operators nationally, while keeping a good local service.” Take Me has recently started to introduce unified branding across its diverse operations, using a logo based on the Take Me “speech bubble” but incorporating individual local business names.
Long-serving Blackpool taxi operator Whitesides adds more hybrid vehicles One of the world’s oldest taxi firms, Blackpool-based Whiteside Taxis, has added 13 new hybrid cars to its fleet of nearly 100 vehicles. The £500,000 investment in nine Hyundai Ioniqs and four Skoda Octavia e-Tec hybrids was via The Taxi Centre, a division of major dealer group Vertu Motors. The taxi company was founded by Thomas Whiteside in 1880 as a horsedrawn taxi service. The Taxi Centre has been supplying the taxi and private hire trade for 20 years and supplies thousands of vehicles each year. Mike Amann, Sales Manager at The Taxi Centre, said: “It’s a real honour to support the world’s oldest taxi firm with its latest vehicles. This investment to modernise its fleet will not only help Whiteside to reduce its emissions but will also help it save money on fuel, whilst providing customers with a comfortable journey.” Daniel Whiteside, Managing Director at Whiteside Taxis, said: “We’ve come a long
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(from left) Taxi Centre’s Mike Amann and Whiteside Taxis boss Daniel Whiteside way since the horse-drawn days of our first taxis. This latest investment means that we can support our drivers to make their shifts as profitable and eco-friendly as possible.” Vertu Motors plc is the fifth largest automotive retailer in the UK with a network of 152 franchised sales outlets and 4 non-franchised sales operations
from 120 locations across the UK. Its dealerships operate predominantly under the Bristol Street Motors, Vertu Motors and Macklin Motors brand names. Vertu acquired The Taxi Centre in 2015 and moved it to a new £100,000 site in Glasgow on Kennishead Road in later 2020. —Mark Bursa
MARCH 2022
