Tag: Acquisitions

Village Travel Acquires Mountain Home Charter Services

On January 15, we closed on the purchase of Mountain Home Charter Service. Based in Mountain Home, AR, this nine-coach company began operations in 1989, with the current owner purchasing it in 1997. At one point, this company offered retail tours in addition to its charter operation, but in recent years, it has only offered coach charters.

The company’s owner was ready to retire, so he contacted us to see if we’d be interested in the business. Since Village already has locations surrounding Mountain Home, exploring and eventually agreeing to the acquisition made sense. We will not continue to operate coaches in Mountain Home, AR, so the growth in coaches will be disbursed primarily to Little Rock and Springdale, with Little Rock adding five coaches to their fleet based on where most of the current Mountain Home customers are located. Three of the nine coaches will come to Wichita to be sold, and the rest of the fleet will be absorbed into locations that run MCI coaches – Little Rock will continue to operate only Prevost in their fleet. Scott Lumbert, the previous owner of Mountain Home Charter, shared with us, “I feel good knowing that the level of service that our customers have come to know will continue with Village at the wheel.”

Village Travel Acquires Arrow Coach Lines

Little Rock, here we come! As of November 1, 2023, Arrow Coach Lines in Little Rock, Arkansas, was acquired by Village Travel. Arrow Coach Lines has served the Little Rock area since 1944. The Lienhart family owned and operated the company from the beginning, and the second generation of this family business is now ready to retire after a lifelong career in the motorcoach industry. Arrow has left a legacy of high-quality motorcoach service, which we are eager to continue!

Arrow’s fleet consisted of nine Prevost coaches and five Ford Transit vans at the time of the acquisition and they employed approximately 20 staff/drivers. We’re happy to share that almost all Arrow’s drivers and employees have applied and been offered positions as a part of the Village team! We’ll be hard at work over the next several months, getting to know the Arrow employees and customers, implementing our processes, and making necessary fleet adjustments. We’re excited about the potential in Little Rock and believe this location fits nicely into the Village “footprint.”

Thank you to the Lienhart Family for entrusting us to step in and continue in this next phase of service for Arkansas.

Read the article from Bus & Motorcoach News about the acquisition.

Village Travel Acquires Kincaid Coach

On April 4, Village Travel agreed to purchase the assets and business of Kincaid Coach Lines. Kincaid began in the charter bus business back in 1977 in the Kansas City area. They grew to have locations in Wichita, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Amarillo, Siloam Springs, and Panama Beach, Florida. Kincaid went on a dramatic growth spree in 2015 and even acquired Red Carpet Charters (OKC, Tulsa, and Dallas locations) in 2018. Before the pandemic, they ran over 80 coaches and thousands of school buses as the country’s largest Thomas school bus dealer.

During the pandemic, Kincaid shifted from the charter coach business to focus on their school bus and other business ventures. They contracted their fleet and shuttered all locations except Oklahoma City and Tulsa. At the time of the acquisition, Kincaid operated 23 units out of these two locations. Several older coaches had been parked and out of service since 2020, and those units were all sold.
So what does this mean for Village? After consolidating their business with ours, Kincaid’s coaches were absorbed into our OKC and Tulsa fleets.

In preparation for future growth, 10 acres of land was purchased last year in Oklahoma City for a new facility. Due to this Kincaid purchase, we have accelerated plans to construct a new terminal located west of the intersection of I-35 and I-44, only about a mile from our current OKC location.
It’s an exciting time to grow! Fifteen years ago, we had seven coaches in Oklahoma City and none in Tulsa – now, we are the clear market leader in both locations, with more than 65 coaches in Oklahoma.