John Oulton with some of his fleet. Courtesy of Richmond Limousine.
In a bid to keep accelerating its growth, a local transportation company has acquired one of its smaller competitors.
Richmond Limousine finalized a deal Wednesday to purchase 100 percent of BioRide, a grease-powered car service founded in 2010.
The deal marks the second change of ownership for BioRide in the last 12 months. Founders Jeff and Joey Anderson sold the company last May to Jesse Mobley, who in turn worked the deal to sell to Richmond Limousine owner John Oulton.
It’s the second acquisition for Oulton, who started Richmond Limousine in 2009 as Hot Shot Limos, an offshoot of his Hot Shot DJ business that played weddings and other events.
Oulton said he cut his first deal that year to purchase the Richmond Limousine brand from its previous operator.
“It was the best $3,000 I ever spent,” he said.
While the terms of the BioRide deal are confidential, Oulton said the combined companies are driving toward $2 million in annual sales. Richmond Limousine had about $1.1 million in revenue last year. BioRide did about $500,000 in 2015.
Jesse Mobley
As part of the acquisition, Richmond Limousine takes on the BioRide brand, book of business, two full-time employees – Mobley included – and eight part-time drivers.
Oulton said he plans to add to his current fleet of 22 vehicles to replace eight vehicles that came over with BioRide.
The two sides became acquainted by referring business to one another, particularly BioRide farming out work to Richmond Limousine’s mini-buses.
Both companies had reached a point of needing to make investments for growth. BioRide was contemplating making the leap to purchase larger vehicles and Oulton said he was looking for a way to keep Richmond Limousine’s growth trajectory going.
“Our growth for the last seven years has been huge,” Oulton said. “It gets a little harder to keep that same growth rate.”
For BioRide, Oulton said, “They were at the point where they were farming out a considerable amount of work. It was time to look at a major investment in vehicles.”
Added Mobley, “(Oulton’s) got the fleet and the resources that BioRide was looking to get, and he’s proven operationally that he can handle the large passenger equipment and frequency of reservations.”
“Together our revenue and fleet will certainly be one of the biggest in Richmond,” Mobley said. “There should be no reason why we can’t become the biggest (locally based) transportation company shortly.”
The BioRide brand will remain, for now, and be used as a separate brand within Richmond Limousine. Mobley said the goal is to eventually merge the two monikers.
The deal also includes the Virginia Brewery Tours brand, which BioRide acquired last month. Oulton said Richmond Limousine does a brisk winery tour business, but was looking for a way to do more rides to breweries.
“Wineries, we’ve got locked down,” Oulton said. “We’ve long been wanting to get further into brewery tours.”
Oulton’s fleet consists of sedans, SUVs, vans, buses and limos. He said he’ll purchase some new vans and sedans to replace BioRide’s vehicles and has orders in for two new Lincoln Continentals, a model the carmaker is bringing back to much fanfare in the car service industry, Oulton said.
Richmond Limousine’s vehicles are hired out for weddings, winery tours, corporate events and proms. Oulton said the company’s bread and butter is rides to and from the airport.
He said his most requested vehicle is the 12-passenger Mercedes Sprinter limo van.
John Oulton with some of his fleet. Courtesy of Richmond Limousine.
In a bid to keep accelerating its growth, a local transportation company has acquired one of its smaller competitors.
Richmond Limousine finalized a deal Wednesday to purchase 100 percent of BioRide, a grease-powered car service founded in 2010.
The deal marks the second change of ownership for BioRide in the last 12 months. Founders Jeff and Joey Anderson sold the company last May to Jesse Mobley, who in turn worked the deal to sell to Richmond Limousine owner John Oulton.
It’s the second acquisition for Oulton, who started Richmond Limousine in 2009 as Hot Shot Limos, an offshoot of his Hot Shot DJ business that played weddings and other events.
Oulton said he cut his first deal that year to purchase the Richmond Limousine brand from its previous operator.
“It was the best $3,000 I ever spent,” he said.
While the terms of the BioRide deal are confidential, Oulton said the combined companies are driving toward $2 million in annual sales. Richmond Limousine had about $1.1 million in revenue last year. BioRide did about $500,000 in 2015.
Jesse Mobley
As part of the acquisition, Richmond Limousine takes on the BioRide brand, book of business, two full-time employees – Mobley included – and eight part-time drivers.
Oulton said he plans to add to his current fleet of 22 vehicles to replace eight vehicles that came over with BioRide.
The two sides became acquainted by referring business to one another, particularly BioRide farming out work to Richmond Limousine’s mini-buses.
Both companies had reached a point of needing to make investments for growth. BioRide was contemplating making the leap to purchase larger vehicles and Oulton said he was looking for a way to keep Richmond Limousine’s growth trajectory going.
“Our growth for the last seven years has been huge,” Oulton said. “It gets a little harder to keep that same growth rate.”
For BioRide, Oulton said, “They were at the point where they were farming out a considerable amount of work. It was time to look at a major investment in vehicles.”
Added Mobley, “(Oulton’s) got the fleet and the resources that BioRide was looking to get, and he’s proven operationally that he can handle the large passenger equipment and frequency of reservations.”
“Together our revenue and fleet will certainly be one of the biggest in Richmond,” Mobley said. “There should be no reason why we can’t become the biggest (locally based) transportation company shortly.”
The BioRide brand will remain, for now, and be used as a separate brand within Richmond Limousine. Mobley said the goal is to eventually merge the two monikers.
The deal also includes the Virginia Brewery Tours brand, which BioRide acquired last month. Oulton said Richmond Limousine does a brisk winery tour business, but was looking for a way to do more rides to breweries.
“Wineries, we’ve got locked down,” Oulton said. “We’ve long been wanting to get further into brewery tours.”
Oulton’s fleet consists of sedans, SUVs, vans, buses and limos. He said he’ll purchase some new vans and sedans to replace BioRide’s vehicles and has orders in for two new Lincoln Continentals, a model the carmaker is bringing back to much fanfare in the car service industry, Oulton said.
Richmond Limousine’s vehicles are hired out for weddings, winery tours, corporate events and proms. Oulton said the company’s bread and butter is rides to and from the airport.
He said his most requested vehicle is the 12-passenger Mercedes Sprinter limo van.