Northgate (company)


Northgate plc is the UK's largest commercial vehicle rental provider, with over 100,000 vehicles in the UK and Spain. They are headquartered in Darlington, County Durham. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

History

Northgate plc was previously known as Goode Durrant plc until 1999 and Goode Durrant & Murray Group plc until 1987.

Goode Durrant plc

Goode Durrant plc was incorporated on 2 July 1897.
In January 1987 Goode Durrant & Murray Group plc was acquired by an Australia-listed company Ariadne Australia via its Hong Kong listed company Impala Pacific, which renamed the UK company to Goode Durrant plc.
In July 1987 Goode Durrant acquired Northgate Motor Holdings, a company established by Alan Noble in 1981 as Noble Self Drive in Darlington; In 1986 Northgate Motor Holdings was established as Noble Self Drive's successor in order to acquire the Darlington, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stockton on Tees operations of the Group.
In 1997 Goode Durrant bought Transport Development Group Vehicle Rental.

Northgate plc

In 1999 Goode Durrant plc was renamed into Northgate plc. In 2002 the Company acquired 40% of Furgonetas de Alquiler SA, a Spanish vehicle rental business, and has since exercised an option to buy the remainder. In 2005 Arriva sold its UK-wide vehicle rental business to Northgate for £129 million.
Kevin Bradshaw replaced Bob Contreras as chief executive in 2017.

Operations

The Company owns a number of businesses which provide commercial vehicle services to business under several trading names. Outside the UK its most important market is Spain, where it has a wholly owned subsidiary called Furgonetas de Alquiler SA.