Taxi Driver Online

Millionaire catches £1.2m cab company

Sunday 1st August 2010

One of Newport's most successful taxi firms has been sold in a deal worth £1.2 million.

Paul Ragan, a millionaire businessman, took over Dragon Taxis last month, following on from his purchase of Radio Cabs, Bridgend, in 2008.

His long-term plan is to create the biggest taxi firm outside of London, with regional offices replaced by a central call centre in Cardiff.

In five years, he hopes to have bought other firms to the east and west of Cardiff and north of the M4 to make this happen.

The company will continue to trade as normal, with current staff keeping their jobs.

He said Dragon Taxis has the potential to expand further if the volume of work increases.

Mr Ragan, who appeared on Channel 4 show The Secret Millionaire earlier this year is the chief executive of the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team.

His background is in insurance, inventing Motorquote in 1991 and selling it as Protectorgroup in 2008, as it could not compete with the top brokers nationally.

John Lavender, the owner of Dragon Taxis for 28 years, said he hopes to go into property and investment, but had not ruled out a return to owning a taxi business in the future.

"I'd like to see it stay successful," he said.

Chairman of Newport's Taxi Drivers Association, Lionel Morris, feels the sale is a good move for the city.

"If Mr Ragan can inject money to create jobs it's a good thing for Newport," he said.

Source; http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/8 ... b_company/

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
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How do they do it?.....In most parts of the country Taxiing and PH is almost fecked with little profit to be had!!.....Do the Big guys build empires out of borrowed money, each time borrowing a little bit more to build an empire that looks like the dogs boll*cks on paper and then sell it as brand name and at a huge profit as a going concern that has not necessarily made a true profit in its entire working life..

Am I missing a trick here?????

Not really, maybe he's a crackpot?

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

A damned rich Crackpot

Bases renting 200 radios out at £80/week cash are a very attractive proposition if they have maintained fleet size for a few years, times that by 10 firms and you have 2000 radios x £80/week = £8million a year income, and with 1 call centre the costs can be kept low

Newport rents are around £100 per week

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

if he dumps the call centre in cardiff and goes for india he will make even more dosh,even though us workers(cabbies) are struggling there is still mega bucks to be made by the owners as this report proves,which begs the question why aren,t we office owners ?we do the work we take all the hassle and we are the one,s struggling ,one of our ex owners is boasting of having 5 mill in the bank(dundee),i on the other hand having worked night shift all week am looking forward to my once a month treat of a fish super ,i dont know if its me but something just doesn,t add up here

£20 to £60 a week is the going rate round here radio rent

The problem is though if the phone lines are outside the licensing and operating district for the cars is that legal ?

How many drivers have they got, anybody know?

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

They are the biggest in Newport, I would hazzard a guess of around 100+.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Wow that's a lot of cash for that many drivers

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

im not mystic meg but id guess he has a clue what hes doing....

archaic legislation due for scrapping