Billionaire brothers say Scottish bus firm ‘in good shape'
While the aim is to improve services, the firm said larger companies could win routes with "slick" bids without necessarily offering a better service.
The firm has just released its latest accounts. (Image: McGill's) It comes after we exclusively reported the company's latest annual results, which showed turnover increased from £57.6 million to £91.2m. Operating profit rose from £720,000 to £1.88m.
Ralph Roberts, McGill's chairman, told this column: "The publication this week of McGill's 2023 accounts told a story of a business that had weathered the Covid pandemic and through tight fiscal controls was in good shape.
"Fast forwarding to 2025 the story is much the same – fiscal control, investment, consistency of service delivery and the Easdale brothers' belief that buses have a critical role to play in our economy.
"That is only part of the story though."
He said the firm responded to 2021 calls for firms to opt for zero emission vehicles at a time "when the path out of Covid was unclear".
Mr Roberts said: "The McGill's fleet was relatively young and there was no need to heavily invest but we knew that we had to lead by example and decarbonise if we were ever going to convince people that travelling by bus was a righteous choice. Financially, it was a tightrope.
"The government gave grant funding for a small percentage of the capital amount, intended to narrow the gap between the price of a new diesel bus and a new EV bus. There were still a lot of unknowns though and it was a huge leap of faith."
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"All of this came at significant investment from Sandy and James. Under normal circumstances, that is a good news story.
"Owners believing in their business, putting their hand deep into their pockets during troubled times and hopefully reaping the rewards for years to come with a strong business to pass onto future generations.
"After all of the investment to build a very strong and stable business, the owners of McGill's now face the very real prospect of large multi-nationals coming in with slick seasoned bid teams and winning all the contracts."
Transport Scotland, the government agency, said: 'Secondary legislation to enable bus franchising came into force on December 4, 2023.
'This enables local transport authorities to begin developing their preferred options for improving their local bus services.
"Since then, we have laid all the regulations required to bring the franchising powers into full effect. This enables local transport authorities to develop local services franchises, where they consider it appropriate, to improve bus services in their local areas."
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