Marcou Transportation Group on Tuesday announced it has acquired Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network, growing a portfolio of brands that also includes the recently acquired BostonCoach.
Dav El president and CEO Scott Solombrino will oversee the Marcou Transportation Group's Premium Chauffeured Transportation Platform, which combined has "more than 3,000 employees, operates 1,700 company-owned vehicles and generates revenue in excess of $250 million per year," according to the company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Marcou called the acquisition of Dav El the "largest deal ever in the premium chauffeured transportation industry."
According to Solombrino, more acquisitions are to come, as Marcou plays out a strategy to consolidate the highly fragmented chauffeured transportation business.
"We're going to consolidate this industry," said Solombrino. "We're already picking through our next four to five deals that we think are important, that we want to bring into the fold."
Marcou’s chauffeured portfolio also includes Regal Limousine, an operator in the Washington, D.C., area, and Harrison Global, which itself has grown through acquisition. Marcou last year bought BostonCoach from longtime parent Fidelity Investments.
Solombrino said each brand would maintain its own identity but tie together technology, reservations and sales functions.
In addition to expanding in the chauffeured transportation space, Solombrino also sees growth opportunities in the destination management segment. Also picked up by Marcou as part of the BostonCoach deal, the Best of Boston destination management company serves as a model. Solombrino expects further moves—acquisitive and organic—in the DMC business.
"We love the ability to be able to cross-sell," said Solombrino of the synergies between the DMC business and the chauffeured space, adding that he was "amazed at how well that fit into the plan for our global expansion. Watch us in that space as well."
Meanwhile, the group plans to launch "very soon" an Uber-like on-demand chauffeured services mobile application, said Solombrino, who said there is tremendous unfulfilled corporate demand for such functionality.
Solombrino said the combined sales forces are being integrated and the brands already are jointly fielding corporate requests for proposals. The combination of brands "gives us tremendous critical mass, tremendous depth and a huge amount of penetration on a percentage basis into the Fortune 1,000," he said.
With Dav El on board, the group will have company-owned locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, California and Washington, D.C., and "serve a network of 550 cities worldwide," according to an announcement.
Marcou Transportation Group also has holdings in "para-transit transportation, school transportation and taxi transportation companies in multiple states," according to the company.