25/04/2008
Stagecoach Group was last night (24 April 2008) named Scottish plc of the year.
The company received the prestigious accolade at the 10th annual Scottish Business Insider and PricewaterhouseCoopers Scotland plc Awards.
Stagecoach was also runner-up in the Innovation category of the awards, which were held at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel.
The Perth-based international transport group, which employs 30,000 people in the UK and North America, beat off competition from Wood Group and last year’s winner, Aggreko, to win the top award.
The judges described Stagecoach as “a company that participates in the whole economy in Scotland”. They also paid tribute to Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Brian Souter’s entrepreneurial leadership in developing new services in a traditional sector.
Brian Souter said: “I am delighted Stagecoach has been recognised with such a prestigious award. For the past three decades, Stagecoach has been a market leader in developing new ideas in public transport and delivering first-class service to our passengers.
“This award would not have been possible without the huge commitment of our employees here in Scotland and across our international operations, as well as the support of our shareholders, transport partners and customers.”
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney MSP, who presented the awards, said: “This government is acting to make Scotland more competitive, but we will depend on the creativity and dynamism of the private sector to drive increased sustainable economic growth.
“That’s why I am delighted to see these business people and the companies they run receiving the recognition they thoroughly deserve.”
Frank Blin, Head of UK Regions for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, added: “In the ten years that we have held the plc Awards we have experienced seismic changes in Scotland’s plc community. Some have enjoyed immense growth and success on a global stage, whilst others have been lost to foreign buyers.
“Companies like Stagecoach are a great example of how a home-grown, family business can embrace the public markets to fuel growth both here and internationally.”
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact:
Steve Stewart, Director of Corporate Communications,
Tel: 01738 442111 (office) or 07764 774680 (mobile)
email: steven.stewart@stagecoachgroup.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The company employs around 30,000 people, and operates bus, coach, rail, and tram services. Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus operators, running around 7,000 buses in nearly 100 towns and cities across the country, from the Highlands of Scotland to south-west England. It includes major city bus operations in Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. In Scotland, Stagecoach operates around 1,300 buses and carries more than 85 million passengers a year.
Scotland plc Awards
The Scotland plc Awards were launched in 1999 by Scottish Business Insider magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers to recognise the achievements at home and abroad of the country’s quoted companies.
Independent research is carried out by the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business as well as follow-up interviews with shortlisted businesses before the judging panel makes its final decisions.
The judging panel was made up of Gavin Gemmell, of Archangel Informal Investment; Norman Murray, of Cairn Energy; Calum Paterson, of Scottish Equity Partners; Alf Young, of The Herald; and Shonaig Macpherson, of ITI Scotland.
The award of plc of the year is to the Scottish plc with the strongest all round performance based on profitability, growth and productivity. Key ratios to evaluate performance are: return on capital employed, turnover, profit before tax on exceptionals, total return to shareholders over one and three year periods and share performance between January 2 2007 and December 31 2007.
