Wellglade Group

History

Wellglade was formed in 1986 when Brian King and Ian Morgan purchased Trent Buses from the National Bus Company in a management buyout. In 1989 the business of Barton Transport was purchased.

In 1998 Wellglade purchased the Kinchbus business in Loughborough. In January 2010 TM Travel of Sheffield was purchased. In January 2012 Wellglade purchased Felix Bus Services.

In December 2011 Tramlink Nottingham took over the running of the Nottingham Express Transit tram network. In April 2012 Centrebus Bowers Coaches operation and services operated from the Dove Holes depot of Wellglade's Trentbarton were combined to form High Peak Buses.

Trentbarton

Trentbarton operates services from Bakewell in the north to Loughborough in the south as well as Ashbourne, Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Derby, Ilkeston, Mansfield, and Nottingham. It was formed when the Trent Buses and Barton Transport operations were merged. Trentbarton mainatins a 6% shareholding in First Leicester.

Kinchbus

Kinchbus is a bus operator based in Loughborough. It was originally an independent company established by Gilbert Kinch. Kinchbus operate various local services around Loughborough and some services on behalf of Leicester City Council along with their Kinchbus 2 route from Leicester to Loughborough and Skylink from Leicester to Derby via Loughborough and East Midlands Airport.

Kinchbus use the slogan 'Loughborough's Finest' which is advertised across their fleet of buses, following the collapse of Nottingham based Premiere Travel in January 2013, Kinchbus reinstated their 9 route between Loughborough and Nottingham which was the first route to have the new refreshed version of the current livery and logo which have been in place since 2007.

Notts & Derby

Notts + Derby operates a small number of local bus services, school buses and contract and private hire work in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. They operate a fleet of vehicles, most of which previously operated with Trentbarton and Nottingham City Transport.

TM Travel

TM Travel is a bus operator based in Halfway, Sheffield which operates passenger bus services in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Founded in 1995 as a family-owned operation with one bus, by March 2008 it had expanded to become the largest independent operator in Derbyshire. The company was taken over by the Wellglade Group in January 2010.

Midland General

The Midland General Omnibus Company was incorporated in 1920 as a company in the Balfour Beatty group with a depot at Langley Mill. In 1972 the company's operations were merged with those of Trent and the Midland General fleetname ceased to be used.

The name was resurrected when Bargain Bus routes BB2 to Cotgrave and BB4 to Long Eaton were started in Nottingham in competition with Premiere Travel's services. These were withdrawn after Premiere Travel decided to withdraw their services.

The Black Cat and Ilkeston Flyer services acquired from Felix in January 2012 were to be operated by Midland General. In practice buses of the Notts + Derby fleet operated both services and the Midland General name has disappeared from the timetables.

Nottingham Express Transit

In March 2011 the Tramlink Nottingham consortium which Wellglade holds a 12.5% shareholding in, was awarded the Nottingham Express Transit 2 contract by Nottingham City Council. In December 2011 Tramlink Nottingham took over the running of the tram network.

Felix Bus Services

In January 2012 Wellglade purchased Felix Bus Services. Felix already shared two routes with Trentbarton, these being Black Cat and Ilkeston Flyer. Despite the appearance of the Midland General name in timetables, the former Felix journeys were operated by Notts + Derby.

High Peak Buses

In April 2012 Centrebus and Trentbarton entered a 50/50 joint venture. This saw Centrebus owned Bowers Coaches and Trentbarton's Buxton area services combined to form High Peak Buses based at the latter's Dove Holes depot.

Kleanline

Wellglade also owns cleaning service provider Kleanline.