Rivus announced to its colleagues and strategic customers on Monday 10 July that it will be re-structuring its LCV operation from 30 September 2023. Rivus’ Mobile services and HGV businesses are unaffected.
The business previously announced in March that it would not be renewing its customer partnership with BT once it expires on 29 September 2023, as it was not financially viable to do so.
Following extensive financial modelling to fully understand the landscape for Rivus in current market conditions, the Rivus Board of Directors have announced it will be closing 48 of its LCV garages to reduce its heavy cost base relating to legacy business systems, ageing garage facilities, and a complex people structure.
The completion of this restructure is intended to coincide with the end of the BT contract later this year. From 30 September, the majority of Rivus colleagues will be in scope to transfer to BT’s new fleet management supplier under Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE). Rivus will maintain a reduced network of strategic locations, some of which will become dedicated to providing mission-critical service, maintenance, and repair services to the Metropolitan Police Service from the 1 November 2023.
Victoria Knight, CEO at Rivus says: “We remain confident that our customer offering is strong and is attractive to the marketplace. This is clear from the number of sizeable fleet operators that have stepped forward to talk to us since the announcement that we will no longer be managing the BT fleet through our garage network. We are still confident in our ability to backfill the volume of work necessary to replace the BT contract. However, time is a key factor here and without committed continuity of work across the network, we have had to make some difficult decisions. Unfortunately replacing the volume of work through our garage network is only part of the problem we face.
Our legacy cost base restricts our ability to remain financially viable in the medium term. If we act now, it means we can restructure in a way that protects the financial interests of our colleagues and supports our existing customers with offboarding their critical fleets as smoothly as possible. This has by no means been an easy decision for the Board to make, but doing the right thing for our colleagues and customers is our absolute priority.”
Rivus Mobile services and colleagues are not impacted by the restructuring plans and will continue to deliver services beyond September. Rivus HGV services and colleagues are also not affected by this re-structure and the business will continue to deliver HGV services through its HGV specialist garage network.
Victoria Knight continues: “Once the LCV restructure is complete, we will grow organically again with a more agile business model and a leaner overhead structure, improving our ability to deliver innovative SMR services to mission-critical fleets across the UK.”