| Administrative History | Government policy during the late 1980s/early 1990s encouraged local authorities to sell off their transport companies. In August 1988 the management of Grampian proposed a management-employee buy-out of the company and the Regional Council accepted. In early 1989 Grampian Regional Transport Ltd became a subsidiary of GRT Holdings PLC and was the first Scottish local authority bus company to transfer into private hands. GRT Holdings continued to expand by acquisition and by late 1994 Grampian Regional Transport became an operating subsidiary of the GRT Group, with its own management. Moir Lockhead subsequently became Group Chairman and Managing Director and was replaced as Grampian Managing Director by Mike Mitchell. In 1995 GRT Holdings merged with Badgerline to create FirstBus plc. |