McGill's Bus Services

McGill's Bus Services

Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLE painted in traditional McGills colours (Aug. 2012)
Slogan	Get out there
Founded	July 2001
Headquarters	Greenock
Service area	Inverclyde Renfrewshire Glasgow City North Ayrshire North Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire
Service type	Bus and coach services
Routes	110
Depots	Inchinnan, Johnstone, Barrhead, Greenock, Coatbridge
Fleet	400+ (March 2016)
Chief executive	Ralph Roberts
Website	www.mcgillsbuses.co.uk

McGill's Bus Services is a bus operator based in West Central Scotland. The company headquarters are situated in Greenock, Inverclyde. The present company was founded in July 2001, restoring the name of a previous operator which had existed between 1933 and 1997. The company has grown from an initial fleet of 33 vehicles to operate a network of routes covering much of Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow City and North Ayrshire. A second depot in Barrhead was opened in 2008, and four independent operators were taken over by McGill's in the following three years. McGill's has several depots in Greenock, Barrhead, Coatbridge, Inchinnan and Johnstone.

McGill's took over the surviving operations of Arriva Scotland West in a £10 million deal; this was completed on 26 March 2012, and the company now operates over 450 buses and around 100 routes and employs over 1000 members of staff. Further expansion followed in 2012 and in 2013, McGills coaches also bought Henderson Travel after it suddenly ceased business in October 2014, and subsequently took over the company's fleet and service routes which has resulted in the company expanding in the North Lanarkshire area becoming the dominant operator in Monklands area by spring 2016.

McGills is the largest independent bus operator in Scotland, as well as being named a Scottish Insider top 500 company in January 2016, coming in at place 350.

The McGill's Bus Services name first came into use in 1933. This company was based in Barrhead and owned by the McGill family. It expanded significantly during the years leading up to bus deregulation, but in July 1997 sold out to the major operator in the area, Clydeside 2000, in the face of significant competition from independent minibus operators. McGill's initially retained its identity, but was later rebranded as Arriva Scotland West. Another company, Greenock based Ashton Coaches (trading as GMS), was also acquired by Clydeside in the same month.

In July 2001, Arriva decided to withdraw from its Inverclyde operations, which were loss-making and faced significant competition from independent operators. Its Greenock depot was sold to former GMS owner Alex Kean and the Easdale family with each owning 50%. Arriva had retained a separate operating licence for McGill's, and this was used as the basis for the sale. The McGill's Bus Services name was revived by the new company and a new livery of blue, white and gold introduced. The fleet initially consisted of 33 Mercedes-Benz minibuses hired from Arriva; services were operated from a large depot on the Easdale Industrial Estate.