The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dundee bus depot sale gives parent group boost
Xplore Dundee operations continue as National Express leases site back
The parent group of bus network operator Xplore Dundee pocketed more than £3 million after selling off the city’s bus depot and a second facility in London.
Details of the transactions were contained in National Express group’s half year results, published last week.
The company confirmed the Dundee depot – which occupies a prominent location on the city’s Dock Street – was sold before being leased back.
The move allows the company to free up cash while continuing to operate its bus services from the site as normal.
In his review to the accounts, National Express group chief executive Dean Finch also highlighted improving bus usage in the city after a period of decline and flagged the Dundee depot’s involvement in providing transport services to the recent Open Championship at Carnoustie – an operation that also drew on resources from the group’s West Midlands bus and UK coach operations.
“Both of our main UK businesses are seeing the benefit of increasingly sophisticated pricing to generate commercial passenger growth, alongside a focus on operational efficiency,” Mr Finch said in his report.
“After a number of years of declining passengers in Dundee, we have rolled out a number of the pricing lessons from the West Midlands and are now seeing passenger growth.”
Mr Finch said improved efficiency in the bus operation and the sale of the Dundee depot had also helped the bottom line.
“The benefit of the combination of organic growth and operational efficiency is seen in the significant improvements of revenue per mile: bus has improved by 3% , core coach has improved by 6.6%,” Mr Finch said.
“We have also recognised £3.4m of property profit from the sale and leaseback of our Dundee depot and exit of a facility in London.”
The trading figures for the six months ended June 30 show the public transport group produced revenues of £1.2 billion in the first half, up from £1.17bn in the comparable period last year.
Pre-tax profits for the period climbed significantly from £64.6m in 2017 to a return of £80.1m in the current year.