First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester
Presume by this, rather than selling off individual depots, they will in the meantime look to restructure Buses as a separate company, Therefore it looks unlikely any further garages will be sold in the interim, and a new Chief Executive will look at it, and decide what he/she wants to do, regards to Manchester and any other operating companies that are losing money.

There would be a great opportunity to start to grow again given that the concentration would be on buses and there would be no diversion from management time by other area's of the business, plus a substantial quantity of the losses and debt would vanish as well.

If any of this is done quickly, but admittedly they aren't normally that leads it open to either take-over or in a position to take-over other operators, maybe from any divestment Stagecoach might be faced with making should it take over Arriva, so perhaps depots like Wythenshawe might appeal to regrow the Manchester operations, as might other take-overs.

The other option is that Stagecoach holts its take-over of Arriva as a take-over of Firsts Bus Operations might be easier for Stagecoach to come by and suit there existing market place of bus operations better.

Clash area's if Stagecoach did go for FirstGroup Buses rather than Arriva would be:-

Aberdeen
Greater Glasgow/Western
Greater Manchester
South Yorkshire
Portsmouth
The South West)- The issue here is every major operator outside Plymouth would be Stagecoach controlled between Gloucester and Lands End.
South Wales.

Looks interesting times ahead.