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Driving school group and 400 jobs saved

Pa,Holly Williams
Monday 22 February 2010 10:46 GMT
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The embattled Red Driving School group has been rescued out of administration in a move that safeguards around 400 jobs, it was confirmed today.

LVG, which owns Red Driving School and Red Instructor Training, has been bought by private equity firm Kelso Place, which has previously backed the Smythson luxury stationery brand.

The deal secures the future of the Red brand and Kelso said it had no plans for redundancies.

Red Driving School is the third largest in the UK, while the group's instructor training division is the biggest in Europe, with a network of 22 colleges.

Brighton-based LVG also owns Red Fleet Training, as well as driving instructor accountancy service FBTC, a trade magazine for the driving instructor training industry called ABI News, and Practical Driver Instructor Aids.

Kelso said it made a "significant equity investment" in securing the deal - said to be worth several million pounds.

The driving school group collapsed last week due to funding woes, although administrator MCR stressed at the time that accounts suggested the business was "quite a healthy and profitable operation".

Philip Weston, a partner at Kelso, said it planned to grow LVG following the takeover.

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