Innes England completes eight acquisitions for Arriva Transport Soluions20th July 2012

INNES England has completed eight acquisitions in 16 weeks to assist Arriva Transport Solutions Limited, part of leading European transport operator Arriva, to launch a new venture.

The Leicester property consultancy acted on behalf of Arriva Transport Solutions to acquire several depots and two call centres in the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire area, stretching as far north as Worksop and as far south as Whetstone. All the properties have been acquired leasehold for a period of seven years.

Arriva Transport Solutions was recently awarded a number of NHS contracts to deliver non-emergency patient transport services. The contracts, which started on 1 July, provide around 500,000 patient journeys a year for NHS Trusts in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Operations are being overseen by two new Arriva control centres which were acquired at Beeston in Nottingham and at Meridian Business Park in Leicester. The control centres utilise state-of-the-art GPS satellite location systems to link the ambulances with Arriva’s patient transport booking system, ensuring patients get to and from appointments on time.

Arriva has invested £6 million in a fleet of more than 130 new ambulances and cars for the contracts which are serviced by 290 staff, previously employed by the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Alasdair Baird, group property project manager at Arriva, said: “We have a strong in-house property team which takes care of the day-to-day management portfolio. This project had a tight deadline and Innes England provided the extra professional support and advice we required to help us complete these strategic acquisitions quickly and successfully.

“These new property acquisitions are part of the huge investment that Arriva has made to fulfil the contracts in the East Midlands helping to firmly establish Arriva Transport Solutions in this important and growing market.”

Peter Doleman, director of Innes England’s Leicester office who handled the programme of acquisitions, said: “We are proud of the strong relationship we have developed with Arriva over the past five years and delighted to have delivered all eight acquisitions on specification and on time. It has been an ambitious schedule but the team effort with Arriva has delivered a great end result.”