| | Executive and Chauffeur Driven Cars Business For Sale | | Seller ref: GP137
Advert ID: 785507 | | | Undisclosed, Hampshire, United Kingdom | |  | | Financials | |  | | Asking price: | £275,000 | | Sales revenue: | £600,000 |
| | | | Business description | | Established for over twenty years and performing consistently well throughout its many years of operation this business has become a significant enterprise with an outstanding reputation for the quality of its vehicles, flexibility of service and reliability; operating 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.
This business provides an ongoing Corporate car service for Clients who need to travel regularly. Operating very much at the upper end of the market for Corporate travel this business provides high quality chauffeur driven vehicles for top executives and enjoys preferred supplier status with some of the largest Corporates within its immediate catchment area. Whether it’s for a meeting in a busy city, the necessity to get to or be picked up from a UK airport, an entertaining evening out, – for the Executives of its Clients or their Clients and customers in turn, this is the company to contact.
This business can handle the most complicated of itineraries, twenty four hours a day, seven days per week with most jobs briefed via e-mail. Operating a small fleet of Rolls Royces – a legacy of its greatly reduced wedding service and E Class Mercedes, the vast majority of its jobs are local to this business’s Southampton base. Heathrow and Gatwick airports are amongst its most frequent destinations. With approximately 25 – 30 Accounts in place demand can be high particularly at peak times and to cope, the business’s own fleet is significantly enhanced by its ability to call upon almost 50 other Owner/Drivers – many operating on a full time basis, ensuring that it can cover for every eventuality with Saloons, Estates, MPV’s, Mini Buses, Mini Coaches and even Coaches between 28 and 70 seats always available.
Apart from its luxury transport, this business prides itself on providing the utmost professional and courteous service but perhaps most importantly an attention to detail and a philosophy to meet and exceed its Clients’ expectations. All drivers are ‘suited and booted’, well trained and clearly briefed on their Clients’ requirements.
With turnover consistently in the region of £600,000 generating gross margins of £177,000 and a pre-tax net operating profit of £137,000 this is an excellent acquisition opportunity and should appeal to anyone looking to establish a foothold in the Corporate car market and in particular to an existing operator looking to expand their geographical coverage towards the south and south west.
Key strengths:
This is a very well managed and easy to run business operating at the upper end of the Corporate travel market. It offers a very competitive service – so much so that the current Owner believes there may be some scope for an uplift in prices bearing in mind the high level of service offered compared to the competition. It is well established and profitable, with a loyal and growing customer base, retaining a high level of customer loyalty, particularly among a number of Clients returning on a regular basis and having done so for a number of years. Because of its high levels of service, this business frequently wins back customers who are tempted for whatever reason to try elsewhere.
It has an outstanding reputation for professionalism, service, reliability, flexibility, efficient booking fulfilment and a willingness to help. It can call upon a wide range of high quality transport and personnel particularly through its sub contract drivers, many of which work for this business virtually full time. All drivers are well trained, courteous, polite, conscientious and friendly – and as a result of being paid promptly by the business are very loyal.
The Vendor has increasingly taken a step back from the day-to-day operation of the business resulting in customer relations founded on a history of trading satisfaction and not contingent upon his presence.
Key opportunities:
There is an outstanding opportunity to build on the existing services and customer base of this company. With a strong demand for services combined with a capacity to increase turnover, a new owner contributing fresh ideas and investment in resources will have every advantage of building on an excellent platform. It should be very attractive to an existing operator in this sector with an existing infrastructure in place and therefore able to reduce operating costs significantly.
As a result of family commitments this business has significantly reduced its wedding bookings over the past period of time, frequently ‘over quoting’ to reduce bookings. With a constant stream of calls received daily it would be very easy to ramp this aspect of the business back up to its previous levels, significantly increasing turnover and profitability.
Without any Internet presence whatsoever, this business would greatly benefit from a very well designed, easy to navigate and informative website to increase awareness of its range of services. |
| | | General information | | | Employees: | This is a small family business with the owner ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operation of the business supported by his wife operating in a part-time capacity in an administrative role and his son. The business is able to call upon approximately 45 sub contract Owner/Drivers as and when required. | | Relocatable: | This business can be relocated. |
| | | Location | | | The business is operated from a home office environment and can easily be re-located. Situated with easy access to the M27 and M3 motorways – and particularly via its network of sub-contract owner/drivers this business is ideally located to service its customers’ requirements in the area from Heathrow, Gatwick to the south and south west. |
| | | Competition / Market | | | This business is in the enviable position of never having needed to tout for business. It has listings in all the standard directories but these have mainly been aimed at generating leads for its wedding service. Because of its excellent reputation it is frequently contacted by other companies operating in its sector but out of area or without availability however it has tended to avoid these in the past due to their mainly unprofitable nature.
The business could certainly benefit from a web presence however by far the most effective marketing is strong word of mouth recommendation testimony to the high levels of customer satisfaction the business enjoys throughout the industry. |
| | | Support & training | | | The current owner will provide all necessary training and all relevant contacts to ensure a smooth transfer of the business to new ownership. |
| | | Reasons for selling | | | This is a genuine retirement sale. |
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