Stagecoach sees organic growth as route ahead

TRANSPORT group Stagecoach is likely to favour organic growth over major acquisitions for the foreseeable future, its chief executive-designate has revealed.

Martin Griffiths, who moves up from the finance director role at the Perth-based firm on 1 May, told The Scotsman that existing strong trading by the group and a lack of obvious sizeable acquisition targets meant the group was right to plough its organic furrow.

“That does not mean we would not look at other [acquisition] opportunities,” Griffiths said. “But we don’t see them right now. We are very comfortable with our shape. It’s been a deliberate decision to be a more streamlined business.”

He added: “Organic growth is the priority … We have no desire to be the biggest. We want to be the best at what we do.”

Playing down any interest in buying a business in Europe, Griffiths argued that too geographically diverse a business risked “diluting” management focus.

Co-founder chairman and chief executive, Sir Brian Souter, radically trimmed Stagecoach’s expansive international operations after the acquisition of Coach USA in the late 1990s laid the company low and saw its stock market value slide.

In the forthcoming management reshuffle, which was flagged last summer, Souter becomes chairman.