ADT taxi firm sold in £3.4m deal
The two founders will remain in the group
LOUGHBOROUGH-BASED taxi firm Ashley David Taxis (ADT) has been sold in a deal worth £3.4m
It has been bought by MBH Corporation, a diversified investment holding company, establishing a sixth business segment “transportation” in addition to education, construction services, engineering services, health and leisure.
ADT Taxis was founded by David Hunter and Ashley Butcher in 2002 and owns 150 vehicles and employs 600 drivers.
The fleet is fully cloud-based and 70 per cent of bookings are made through a customer app developed in-house.
Founders David Hunter and Ashley Butcher will remain in the group, David as CEO and Ashley in Fleet Management and Managing Director for the new EAT ME app.
David Hunter said: “We will be rebranding as ‘ Take Me’ to form an national taxi company, with 13 fleet take acquisitions planned for the next 12 months, backed by MBH Corp Plc.
“We plan to build a nationally recognised brand, using the latest technology for ride sharing. Private hire companies have made profit to survive, whereas the app companies haven’t.
“Our vision is to have a UK wide branded app, backed by the experience and expertise of local operators and using the technology provided by Icabbi and Riide.
“We are now actively seeking companies to buy with payments up front, and where possible to keep the key staff and owners, if the owner chooses to stay on. I actively invite owners to contact me, so we can arrange an informal coffee.
“We are excited to be joining MBH at a pivotal moment for the company and the industry.
“Over the last few years we have become fully cloud based having automated our 600 vehicle fleet and 70 per cent of our bookings come through our customer app.
“We have strong growth ambitions which MBH will be instrumental in helping us achieve; in the next few years our aim is to buy as many fleets as we can and expand our network and rebrand
with a national tech focussed name ‘ Take Me’.
“The ambition to merge other profit making private hire fleets under one company and brand
and to streamline, modernise them to cloud based fleet management companies. I am very excited about the future and our potential with MBH.”
Callum Laing, CEO, MBH Corporation plc, said: “David and his team have substantial growth plans and we are delighted to be working with them to achieve that.
“As David commented, it’s an exciting moment both for his company and the industry in general - that has faced challenges from increased competition over the past years, but that is now poised for significant growth. “As we move into a scenario where last mile logistics become increasingly valuable, having the experience and the network of drivers that ADT (soon to be TAKE ME) has will prove critical.
People, parcels or your dinner, Take Me will ultimately be able to deliver.”