Finn Business Sales is helping sell the Alpine Spirit Coaches business, including the Snowball Express, after the owners announced they plan to transition to retirement
Finn Business Sales has announced that established coach and tour company Alpine Spirit Coaches is listed for sale.
After being established in 1970 and acquired by its current owners in 2011, the company has enhanced its reputation in the region by offering coach services for a loyal customer base.
Finn Business Sales principal director Dallas Lodge says the large established client base for the business is made up of a range of customers enjoying private charters, large group snow bookings, educational tours and senior citizen tours.
“Alpine Spirit Coaches is a very long established coach company with a good name,” Lodge told ABC.
“Like most coach companies, the owners are transitioning towards retirement so the business has scaled down what it once was.
“It’s a terrific opportunity for a younger person to come into the coach industry at a good price.”
The Myrtleford-based company has been listed for sale at a price point of $1,350,000.
The sale also comes with the Snowball Express, which is a second business that offers a direct route bus service to Hotham and Dinner Plain between June to September.
Alpine Spirit’s coaches operate from Melbourne, Myrtleford, Bright and Harrietville and services the entire Mount Hotham and Dinner Plain Village area, as well as providing the coach hire to Snowball Express for the service.
During the 2023 snow season, the Snowball Express will operate from Friday to Sunday but can easily be expanded to seven days a week if the new owner chooses to do so, as the systems and pricing are in place to support the change.
Lodge says the Snowball Express is a contracted service that still has around nine years left on its current contract.
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“Alpine Spirit does a lot of coach work and has plenty of existing clients as well as its Snowball Express contract,” Lodge says.
“It’s a good business with good, genuine people who have been at it for 14 years and are now looking to retire.”
Lodge says the business is ideally located in Myrtleford, which is quickly becoming an ideal tourist destination all year round in Victoria.
With the Albury Airport roughly 50 minutes away, many private charters use the airport as an access point to and from ski resorts.
Lodge says Alpine Spirit has an excellent relationship with the airport, allowing it to capture the top-end market for private 4WD luxury snow transfers.
Included in the sale is:
- The fleet and equipment, including seven coaches and buses
- A large client base
- High brand awareness, a social media presence and an SEO ranking first of most searches for charter, bus transfer or group transport services
- Good forward bookings in the pipeline for the 2023 financial year
- An opportunity to scale the business
- A long new lease to be provided for the business’s depot and office in Myrtleford
Lodge says interested buyers should enquire online to snap up a terrific coach business opportunity.
“The location of the business is a major opportunity for the right person,” Lodge says.
“Myrtleford is a hot spot for tourism in north-east Victoria, so it’s not just snow season that it’s busy, it’s now busy throughout the year.”