Through the quality of our people, our fleet and our services, we at Lothian Buses continue to provide Edinburgh, its citizens and visitors with world-class public transport.
This continuing success story is testament to the hard work and dedication of our 2,000 employees. Their efforts have helped us achieve a 2012 net profit of £8.2 million, a 31% increase in profit from operations and a near 5% increase in total revenues year-on-year.
Generating healthy commercial returns for the business helps safeguard the livelihoods of our staff as well as allowing further investment into the provision of quality services for our customers. We also provide our majority shareholder, The City of Edinburgh Council, with an annual dividend. Last year this was in excess of £3.0 million, allowing us to contribute positively towards the provision of public services.
Additionally, we invested significantly in our own business to the tune of £5.5 million, primarily in new buses and the redevelopment of our Longstone depot.
We also continue to invest in people and, as so many of our successes come back to our staff, we always ensure that we attract, retain and reward the best people in all disciplines of the business that we can.
Importantly, our commercial successes are built upon the provision of value-for-money fares and we continually strive to keep fares low whilst still offering the highest standards of public transport as demanded by our customers.
The last 18 months have been complex and challenging due to the growth of the business, introduction of East Lothian Buses and preparation for tram. As a consequence of this activity Ian Craig was formally appointed to Chief Executive, which reflects his additional responsibilities over the past year. In addition, Tom Norris was appointed as General Manager of Edinburgh Trams and most recently Sarah Boyd as Head of Operations – Bus. These appointments followed formal organisational design studies, benchmarking and job sizing. This is one of a number of steps that have been made to prepare the company for its enlarged and more complex role.
We now look forward to another year of commercial success as well as success continuing the themes of above; the provision of quality public transport that an iconic capital such as Edinburgh deserves. Objectives also include the continuation of the things that we quietly go about as part of our commitment to the city; our charitable work, our community work, our work with schools and disability groups and our award-winning environmental efforts.
These are the things that make Lothian Buses special and continue to cement the relationship we have with our city and its residents, developed over a 100 year history.
On that note, please let me thank-you on behalf of the Board of Lothian Buses and all of our staff for your continued support.
Chris Walton
Chairman,
Lothian Buses plc
