Three small-town bus company owners have sold their businesses to KKR-owned Ritchies. From left: Murray Pearson of Pearson's Coachlines, Sharon and Allen Fretwell (Greenline Motors) and Lyndon Leabourn (Leabourn Passenger Service). NZME Graphic
Three small-town bus company owners have sold their businesses to KKR-owned Ritchies. From left: Murray Pearson of Pearson's Coachlines, Sharon and Allen Fretwell (Greenline Motors) and Lyndon Leabourn (Leabourn Passenger Service). NZME Graphic
New Zealand transport operator Ritchies has scooped up three family-run bus companies, paying their owners more than $57.3 million. Tom Raynel reports.
It’s not often that global American investors come knocking on the doors of family-run Kiwi businesses but that’s what happened to three locally-owned bus companies.
Ritchies,bought by global private equity firm KKR in 2021 reputedly for about $500m, has since bought out three family-run bus operators – Greenline Motors in Morrinsville, Pearsons Coachlines in Ōamaru and Leabourn Passenger Service in Kaiwaka – in separate, multimillion-dollar deals.
The amounts – between $17.88m and $19.93m – are life-changing for the owners after decades of hard work and service to their communities.
Allen and Sharon Fretwell owned and operated Greenline Motors.
Allen and Sharon Fretwell took over Greenline Motors, established more than 35 years ago, in 1991 and gradually built up the fleet and number of depots.
Greenline started life as Robson’s, later Martelli Motors, and was run by Norman and June Ball from 1972, before the Fretwells bought the business.
Allen Fretwell says his accountant introduced him to Norman Ball, who wanted to retire.
“Gary [his accountant] said to me, ‘you know, there’s a good little business here that you would be right up your alley,’” Fretwell says.
An original wooden-framed bus built in Morrinsville for the business before it became Martelli Motors. Photo / Greenline Motors
Fretwell’s background in transport, trucks, and quarries made him a great fit to take over the coach business.
He and his wife Sharon built up the business to a fleet of 52 luxury buses, school buses (which Greenline provides for all Morrinsville and district schools), charter vehicles, and mini-vans, based in Morrinsville and with depots in Te Aroha, Hamilton, and near Auckland Airport.
In the early days Fretwell converted the original Bedford buses from petrol to diesel, and had newer buses built in Christchurch and Brisbane.
“I’ve kept the photo of every bus that I’ve bought, every bus that I’ve sold,” he says. “As I sold them, I would put them into one album, and as I bought them, I put them into the new album, so everything was documented.”
One of many Bedford buses owned by Martelli Motors in Morrinsville. Photo / Greenline Motors
When KKR approached him wanting to buy the business on behalf of Ritchies, Fretwell didn’t hesitate. He got an independent valuation and the $19.5m deal was done.
“You know, if I was 20 years younger, I wouldn’t have, we wouldn’t have got out of it. But I’m 73 now, and I’ve had a few health issues. When Ritchies came along, they decided they wanted everything.”
“They’ve got a really good guy who’s taken my place. He hasn’t been in the industry, but he’s been in trucks, and he gets on well with my old staff, and it’s great.”
Now the business has been sold to Ritchies for $19.5m, the Fretwells are making the most of their retirement.
“Oh it’s great, we’ve just been four months away. We only just got back from Europe!”
Greenline Motors had a fleet of buses in service for the 1991 Scout Jamboree in Morrinsville. Photo / Greenline Motors
Despite no longer owning the business, he says the new owners still ask for his panelbeating expertise from time to time.
And although Fretwell is no longer running a transport company, the memories built up over decades of living in the Morrinsville community are still with him. Locals who remember him driving them to school when they were young still call out when they see him.
He tells a story of flying from Wellington to Hamilton on a small plane and having difficulty hearing the pilot’s announcements because a speaker was broken at the back of the plane. Fretwell decided to tell the pilot about the broken speaker when he got off.
“So I go up the front and look around the corner and there’s this young fella who turns around and says ‘Hi Mr Fretwell!’ I said ‘I used to get you to school, but now you’re flying me around.’”
Nearly 60 years of family history
Murray Pearson has owned Pearsons Coachlines for 38 years but it was his father Les who started the Ōamaru-based business in 1965.
Les Pearson originally owned a milk bar and taxi service in the South Island town of Kurow. After the Benmore and Aviemore dams were completed, which Pearson relied on for business throughout their construction, he bought a bus to run the Otiake/Lake Waitaki school route.
The wooden-framed Bedford bus was nicknamed by the local school kids the “Biscuit Tin”, but was replaced a few years later and ended up as a tomato house in Pearson’s back garden.
Murray Pearson fondly remembers working on the engines of the buses with his dad in school holidays.
Les Pearson died in the mid 1980s and with the business still needing to be run, Murray Pearson, then aged 27, bought the business and took over operations. He gave up his building contractor work, renamed the business Pearsons Coachlines and focused on growing the fleet.
History outlined on the company’s website says Pearsons gained additional local school routes from the Ministry of Education over the next 20 years and added a second depot in Ashburton. It was running 50 buses on 32 school runs, alongside private tour and charter services by the time Ritchies acquired the business for $17.88m in November last year.
According to company reports, Pearson has already been paid $16.38m of that amount. There is also a $1.5m remaining contingent payment due should the business renew an undisclosed specific contract by the end of 2024.
Third generation of Leabourns
Lyndon Leabourn has been running the family bus business for the past 10 years, but the Leabourn Passenger Service has a history that extends decades.
According to the business’s website, Leabourn’s grandfather Keith began the bus service more than 60 years ago with a single bus in Kaiwaka.
The Leabourns later added another bus to the company and gained a school run from the Ministry of Education.
Eventually, the business was passed down to Keith’s son Terrence, who ran the business with his wife Gail.
The company’s website says the deregulation of the transport industry in the 1980s led to the ministry pulling out of school runs, allowing them to rapidly expand.
Terrence Leabourn ran the family business for decades, operating as a director for 32 years from 1982 until 2014 when he died.
Well known in the Kaiwaka community, he was fire chief for the Kaiwaka Volunteer Fire Brigade for 39 years while running the passenger bus service.
After his death in 2014, his son Lyndon worked with his mother Gail in the family business, becoming co-director and operator of the Leabourn Passenger Service, now run by the third generation of Leabourns.
The company’s fleet continued to grow to more than 100 vehicles, and depots in Warkworth, Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto and Ruawai.
Ritchies has bought the business for $19.93m. To date, the Leabourns have received $16.93m, with another $1m going to an escrow agent.
The remaining $2m is split into two instalments to be paid based on the business meeting revenue targets for the current period and 2025 financial year, with the final amount payable by July 2025.
The former owners of Pearsons Coachlines and Leabourn Passenger Service were unable to talk directly to the Herald because the sales processes with Ritchies has not been completed.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
