NAT Group

NAT Group
Optare Solo in Llangennith in September 2014
Parent ComfortDelGro
Founded 2008
Headquarters Cardiff
Service area South Wales
Service type Bus & coach services
Depots 4
Fleet 117 (February 2018)
Chief executive Kevyn Jones
Website www.natgroup.co.uk

NAT Group[1] is a bus and coach company in South Wales. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro.

History

MAN Lion's City in Southerndown in July 2014

NAT Group was established in 2008 with four buses. By 2015, it had expanded to 175 buses and coaches. Mainly 2nd hand buses from London also NAT bought the only man city smarts.

It has purchased the businesses of VR Travel of Merthyr Tydfil in October 2013 [2] and Select Local Bus of Neath in 2015.[3][4]

In August 2014, NAT Group were successful in its bid to operate the Gower Explorer buses, taking over from the former operator First Cymru on 26 October 2014. NAT Group also took over the T9 TrawsCymru route from the Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Airport from First Cymru.[5]

In September 2015, NAT Group started three cross city routes in Newport. Four MCV Evolution's, Scania OmniCity's and eight Optare MetroCity's have Newports N1 Or N4 crosscity branding. The company has now largely withdrawn from Newport due to loss of key school contracts, the withdrawal of route R2 as well as the N1 and N5/6. In February 2018 the business was purchased by ComfortDelGro.[6][7][8]

Criticism

In May 2015 the company faced criticism for two adverts on the back of its route X1 buses which showed a scantily clad woman and man holding a placard saying "Ride me all day for £3". New Adventure Travel said that the advertising campaign had been a "tongue-in-cheek" effort to target the younger generation and no offence had been intended, but that due to the volume of complaints, it would remove the adverts immediately.[9]

Fleet

As at February 2018, NAT Group operated 117 buses out of depots in Cardiff, Newport, Pontypridd and Swansea.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Companies House extract company no 6507924 New Adventure Travel Limited
  2. ↑ NAT Group officially purchases Merthyr Tydfil based VR Travel NAT Group
  3. ↑ NAT Group purchases Select Local Bus of Neath NAT Group
  4. ↑ "NAT buys Select Bus Service assets" Coach & Bus Week 7 April 2015
  5. ↑ All change on Gower buses South Wales Evening Post 5 August 2014
  6. ↑ ComfortDelGro's units acquires UK transport operator for £13 million Business Times (Singapore) 7 February 2018
  7. 1 2 ComfortDelGro buys New Adventure Travel for £13.4 million Route One 7 February 2018
  8. ↑ Comfort acquires UK transport operator for $24.6 million The Straits Times 8 February 2018
  9. ↑ "South Wales 'Ride me' bus advert sparks online backlash". BBC News. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
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