History
In 1972 the state-owned the National Bus Company decided to bring together the scheduled coach services operated by its' bus operating companies under one brand. Initially branded as National, the National Express brand was first used in 1974. The National Express network was largely a branding exercise, with services continuing to be operated by the individual companies.
With the privatisation of the National Bus Company in the 1980s, National Express was subject to a management buyout in March 1988. The management team began to diversify, and acquired the bus company Crosville Wales in 1989 but its financial performance began to deteriorate from early 1990. A new management team took over the company in July 1991, with the backing of development and venture capital investors. The new team refocused the group on its core activities and sold Crosville Wales to British Bus Limited. In October 1991 it purchased Speedlink, an operator of coach services between Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport. In December 1992 National Express Group plc was floated on the London Stock Exchange. The prospectus stated the objectives of the company were to refocus and improve the profitability of the core coach business, to develop new products and services within its existing operations, and to acquire new businesses in the passenger transport market.
Read more about this topic: National Express Group
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)