Growing Carolinas Company Expands Into Motorcoach Market

Carolinas operators Laura and Jeff Canady acquired four Prevost motorcoaches as part of their deal buying a small Columbia, S.C. charter and tour bus company.

Carolinas operators Laura and Jeff Canady acquired four Prevost motorcoaches as part of their deal buying a small Columbia, S.C. charter and tour bus company.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — CLT Express Livery of Charlotte, N.C. on Sept. 1 acquired Busy Bee Coach Bus & Tours, a Columbia-based charter and tour operation with four motorcoaches.

The purchase, announced this week, allows CLT Express Livery to serve a market that needs more chauffeured transportation and bus services. Terms of the deal, brokered by Kristen Carroll of the LMC Group, were not disclosed. CLT Express Livery and SC Express Livery are owned by Jeff and Laura Canady.

As part of the deal, CLT gains four Prevost H-45, 56-passenger motorcoaches — two 2002 model year and two 2003 model year. The company also runs one 2009 MCI and one 1995 Van Hool.

SC Coach will be introduced and branded under its new name in January 2016. Busy Bee Coach Bus & Tours, formerly owned by Naomi Stout, has been operating for more than 20 years in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. Jackie Williams will remain as office manager while James Canady will be the operations manager of SC Coach and SC Express Livery chauffeured transportation.

Handing off the keys: Naomi Stout sold Busy Bee Coach Bus & Tours of Columbia, S.C., to Charlotte, N.C. operator Jeff Canady in a deal that closed last month.

Laura Canady, also a board director of the National Limousine Association, has named Lauren Carter as the new office manager of SC Express Livery. Carter has been with the company since CLT Express Livery bought it from Aiken Limousine in 2010. She will help the combined companies grow in the areas of Aiken, S.C., and Augusta, Ga.

About CLT Express Livery
Jeff Canady founded CLT Express Livery in 2000 with one sedan. As off 2015, CLT has bought four companies, including Busy Bee, and now runs 50 fleet vehicles and employs 40 workers. The CLT companies deploy a diverse fleet, ranging from sedans to motorcoaches, that serve both sides of the North Carolina and South Carolina border region.

The Canadys plan to expand company facilities on a nine-acre complex, located a few minutes from downtown Charlotte and the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. The site, purchased in 2014, will be the largest chauffeured transportation property between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.

Source: CLT Express Livery press release