National Express changes its corporate name to ‘Mobico’

National Express is changing its corporate name from next month to Mobico in efforts to reflect its international footprint. 

Controversial rebrands have been in vogue in recent years, with Royal Mail’s change to the lengthy International Distribution Services and Standard Life Aberdeen’s rebrand to the arguably unintelligible Abrdn.

The company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange as National Express in 1992, operates coach and urban bus services in Europe, the US and Africa.

It will, however, continue to use the well-known National Express name for its UK coaches and other businesses in the country.  

It said the new name ‘better reflects the group’s international nature and its diverse range of mobility services’ as it looks to establish itself as ‘the world’s premier shared mobility operator.’

‘Whilst National Express is a highly valued consumer brand, Mobico better represents our multi-modal operations, global reach and future ambitions,’ chief executive, Ignacio Garat, said.

The rebranding will also not affect the group’s operating subsidiaries, such as The Kings Ferries coaches in Kent and West Midlands buses, which will also ‘retain their well-known customer-facing brands’. 

All ‘significant’ brand names used across the group’s international operations, including Alsa, WeDriveU, Peterman and Durham School Services, will also be retained.

‘The new corporate name will not involve any operational or structural changes to the group or any of its subsidiaries and will be implemented in a cost effective way,’ National Express added.

Once the name change becomes effective next month, the group will change its stock market ticket from NEX to MCG. 

The rebranding follows similar moves by the likes of Standard Life Aberdeen, which changed its name to Abrdn two years ago in an attempt to modernise the company. It became the subject of some industry mockery at the time of the announcement. 

In a similar move, Royal Mail in October last year changed its longstanding moniker to International Distributions Services.

At the time, it said it better reflected its structure of two separate companies – its UK business, Royal Mail, and its German business, GLS.

Hermes, the UK’s largest parcel carrier firm, also rebranded to Evri in March last year in an effort to leave the past behind after facing complaints for parcels being mishandled and poor customer service.