Case study: Warrington’s Own Buses

Warrington’s Own Buses has been serving the community since 1902, and today carries more than 6 million customers per year on a fleet of 118 buses.

We were invited to tender on the migration of the business to its fantastic new facility at Dallam Lane in Warrington.

Our bid contained a range of services, including:

• Move management
• Office relocation
• Relocation of specialist workshop equipment
• Resale of redundant workshop equipment
• Clearance of redundant furniture

After a comprehensive tender process, Warrington’s Own buses appointed BMG to deliver the above services. The principal reasons we were successful with our bid was down to our enthusiasm we had for the project, and our invaluable industry expertise we had gained in delivering projects for other clients in their sector.

Move management

BMG move manager Gareth Smith integrated into the client team to help plan the project in detail, including key deliverables and timelines.

The main challenge was that the business does not operate in traditional 9-5 hours, and needed to remain fully operational at both the existing and new site workshops throughout the move.

Thanks to our detailed planning, we successfully completed the workshop relocation with zero down time to the business.

Stock clearance

In addition to the move, Warrington’s Own Buses requested our support for clearing out old stock. Gareth worked closely with the client to determine which stock was redundant, resulting in a large amount of redundant stock being flagged for resale or recycling. This reduced the number of crates required for the move from 700 to 400, providing a cost saving for the client.

BMG is unique within our industry in that we own all our own crates. As such, we were able to supply the crates that were required to deliver all aspects of the works, which saved the client money and is more sustainable than buying crates specifically for the move.

Workshop relocation

Warrington’s Own Buses workshop is integral to its business as its where buses are serviced, and urgent repairs are carried out. BMG’s heavy lift manager held pre-move meetings with the individual client departments to plan a programme that ensured both workshops were operational throughout the relocation. This meant that services continued as normal, with no disruption to customers.

Machinery resale

The business procures a high degree of workshop machinery, much of which was deemed surplus to requirements as we cleared out the workshop.

We utilised an auction specialist to sell all redundant equipment. This was not only commercially beneficial to Warrington’s Own Buses as it reduced project cost by 50 per cent, but also helped with sustainability and social value as the equipment was able to be reused by others in the local community.

Summary

As a result of the detailed planning and close collaboration with the client, all aspects of the project were delivered within allocated times and forecasted costs.

“Service downtime or delays to repairs is simply not an option for us as so many people rely on our buses to go about their daily lives. The team at Business Moves Group gave us confidence that they would be able to complete this project around our schedules and they delivered on that promise. Gareth integrated seamlessly into our team and the whole process was as smooth as we could have hoped. I wouldn’t hesitate to use Gareth and his team again in the future.”

• Andy Rigby, Head of Facilities at Warrington’s Own Buses

Experts in relocation

Business Moves Group supports a number of companies across the northwest of England with relocation and estate management projects. View our full range of services and contact us to discuss how we can support your business.