1979 |
Lakeside MiniCoaches was acquired by John Davies and Lakeside Coaches began. |
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1982 |
Lakeside Coaches acquired its first brand new coach, a 'W' registered Duple bodied Ford. |
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1987 |
John's wife Dorothy became a partner in the business and this arrangement has stayed until today with Lakeside Coaches becoming a Limited Company. |
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1994 |
Lakeside Coaches saw its brand new 'M' registered 53 seat Plaxton Premiere coach attract much attention as it a was exhibited in the Expo Coach Show at the Telford Exhibition Centre. This coach also joined a brand new 16 seater which joined the fleet earlier in the year. |
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1996 |
This year saw a new midi and mini coach (both 'N' registered) join the fleet, both have since been replaced with newer models. |
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1997 |
A new 'P' registered 53 seat Plaxton Premiere coach joined the fleet. |
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1998 |
A pair of Plaxton Premiere coaches joined the fleet this year with 53 and 57 seats respectively, both bearing 'R' registration plates. |
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1999 |
This year saw two important acquisitions, one being a new 'T' registered 35 seater Optare Mercedes coach which helped to break the previous jump between the 21 and 53 seater coaches operated.
The other purchase was a pre-owned 1997 Plaxton Premiere coach which was Lakeside Coaches first executive coach and was to followed by 4 similarly equipped coaches. |
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2000 |
Considering it was the millennium it was a relatively quiet year for purchases with a pre-owned 1997 Plaxton Excalibur coach joining the fleet (the first owned by ourselves with air conditioning fitted) and a new 'V' registered 21 seat Toyota Optimo coach finding their way into the fleet. |
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2001 |
Another first occured this year and that was the first brand new Volvo coach bought by ourselves, this was a Plaxton Excalibur with an 'X' registration. |
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Mid
2001 |
This period was extremely busy and saw the fleet size increase from 12 to 16 through various purchases, these included: 2 pre-owned examples to cope with demand (one Volvo and the other a DAF). |
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2002 |
Two late example pre-owned Volvo Plaxton coaches joined the fleet, one a full air conditioned executive with 49 seats and the other a 53 seat coach, these were both 'V' registered coaches, first registered in 1999 and 2000 respectively.
Also two brand new smaller coaches joined the fleet one being a 16 seat Mercedes and the other a 21 seat Toyota Optimo, both display the new '02' registrations. |
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2003
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The fleet stands at 16 vehicles, further fleet upgrade meant that a brand new B12M Volvo Plaxton Panther arrived. This executive specification vehicle displays a '52' registration plate. |
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2004 |
The fleet currently stands at 17 vehicles following the acquisition of a new '53' reg. Dennis Plaxton Premiere 57 seater and a used 'T' reg. DAF Van Hool Alizee to executive specification.
The number of staff stands at approx. 25 employees. |
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2005 |
The fleet stands at 18 vehicles, fleet changes have resulted in a Mercedes Solera and a Caetano Toyota Optimo being added to the fleet.
There are nearly 30 members of staff. |
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2006 |
The year begins in true Lakeside fashion with huge investments in two new Caetano Enigma touring coaches and a brand new coach operations centre in Ellesmere. |
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2007 |
A new Mercedes Beluga 29 seater has updated our minicoach fleet in 2007.
Later on this year, another 26 seat Caetano Optimo was purchased and has the '57' plate.
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2008 |
Purchases this year include a 49 seat executive coach, YN57 MDU.
Caetano Optimo BU08 BGF joins us later in the year. |
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2009 |
This year we celebrated our 30th anniversary. The fleet is at it's largest ever at 21 coaches. We bought a new 49 seat executive coach, and registered if JD09 LAK for the occasion.
We now have about 20 members of staff. |
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2010 |
Another two brand new coaches have been bought. They are some of the last B12M's to be made. One is a long 59 seater, and the other a 49 seater executive.
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