David Reeves, joint founder of D&G Bus, died on Monday 11 May after suffering a heart attack. He was 61.
Mr Reeves founded the Stoke-on-Trent-based operator with his late business partner and friend Gerald Henderson in 1998.
Mr Reeves initially maintained a job with the ambulance service before joining the business full-time. His career in the coach and bus industry had earlier seen him work for other operators in Staffordshire, including Stevensons of Uttoxeter and Bakers of Biddulph.
Mr Henderson died in 2006. Under both his and Mr Reeves’ guidance D&G Bus grew substantially. It opened a depot in Crewe and Mr Reeves’ bus interests grew to encompass sister operations in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
Both of those businesses were subsequently sold, as was the Stoke-on-Trent operation. It became part of Arriva’s Wardle Transport operation in August 2011, but D&G retook ownership in October 2015. D&G celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018 by painting a bus into its original blue and cream livery.
More recently, D&G opened a base near Northwich and has a small amount of work in Greater Manchester and Wales. David Reeves sold his interests in D&G to Centrebus Group in December 2019, explaining at the time that following a health issue in 2016 he had “lost some of [his] enthusiasm.”
D&G Bus now operates almost 100 buses from depots at Adderley Green in Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe and Northwich in Cheshire East.
Details of Mr Reeves’ funeral are awaited.
