A baggage repatriation firm will cover the majority of airline contracts at Heathrow as it consolidates its UK market dominance by taking over a rival.
Scottish company Eagle Aviation has purchased the business and assets of London-based handling firm Groundcare Solutions which repatriates about 1,000-1,500 bags a day.
The acquisition for an undisclosed sum secures 80 jobs – taking the Bathgate-based Eagle Aviation’s headcount to beyond 200 – with plans to continue growth through new hires across the network in both London and Scotland.
Eagle now claims to be the UK’s leading baggage repatriation company providing a daily service to 33 airports and 120 airline groups, with more than 40 new airlines being serviced since September.
Handling and returning more than 800,000 bags a year to owners, clients include British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair, Loganair, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia, KLM, Air France, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa and SAS.
Operations manager Samuel Milne said: “Groundcare Solutions shares our commitment to customer experience and service, while understanding how frustrating problems with luggage can be. We work in a highly fraught environment – and these values resonate with our own, which made the acquisition a perfect fit.
“The move will welcome many dedicated staff members to our team giving us the scale and resources to expand and grow as the industry recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic while providing a service our customers and partners can rely on.
“Eagle has been able to adapt aspects of business quickly throughout recent challenging times.
“With unpredictable fuel prices and fall out from Brexit and the pandemic still playing a major part in our operations, this acquisition will give us stability to delve into all the possibilities the current market conditions present.”
He added: “We suffered tremendous challenges over the past 18 months with staffing levels, delays in processing airport security passes and vehicle shortages.
“The airports ramped up so quickly that many service providers around UK airports struggled to keep up with the demand.
“Our services were not to the standard that we would have wanted, and we worked very hard to make significant improvements in our infrastructure to accommodate the high volumes of work.”
The acquisition of Groundcare Solutions is seen as a solution to build a robust service recovery for Heathrow and Gatwick, further boosting the company’s presence after the acquisition of Wey Group International in 2018 based in Byfleet, Surrey.