History
The company was originally founded in 1986 when the National Bus Company sold Maidstone & District (M&D) to its management through a holding company called Einkorn. On 14 April 1995, Einkorn Ltd (with M&D, M&D Advertising and New Enterprise) was bought by the British Bus Group, which had bought Kentish Bus (one of the successor companies of London Country Bus Services) the year before and Londonlinks in 1988. British Bus renamed Einkorn Invictaway, and used it as the management services company for all three businesses. Invictaway was previously the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at the same time.
In July 1996 British Bus was taken over by the Cowie Group, which was renamed Arriva on 1 January 1998. Invictaway was renamed Arriva Southern Counties on 2 April 1998, and Arriva transferred London & Country (also owned by British Bus) to it. The subsidiary operating companies therefore became:
- Maidstone & District:
- Mainly became Arriva Kent & Sussex
- Medway area became Arriva Medway Towns
- Kentish Bus:
- Mainly became Arriva Kent Thameside
- Partly became Arriva Kent & Sussex
- London & Country:
- Became Arriva Guildford & West Surrey
- LondonLinks:
- Became Arriva Croydon & North Surrey
Current operations in the South East area are:
- Arriva Kent & Sussex
- Arriva Kent Thameside
- Arriva Medway Towns
- Arriva Guildford & West Surrey
- Arriva Southend
Many reorganisations of Arriva operations in South East England have followed since, and today the company also controls Arriva Guildford & West Surrey, Arriva West Sussex, and Arriva Southend. The Croydon & North Surrey subsidiary was largely transferred to Arriva London.
Arriva Colchester was sold in August 2004 to Tellings-Golden Miller, although with Arriva's recent purchase of the Tellings operations, Colchester has now returned to the group. The coaching subsidiary, New Enterprise Coaches (Tonbridge), inherited from Maidstone & District, remains in operation.
The company offices have been based since its founding at "Invicta House" in Maidstone.
Read more about this topic: Arriva Southern Counties
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