Kinetic grows Queensland operations with Duffy’s City Buses acquisition

Credit: Kinetic

Kinetic has confirmed its growing commitment to regional Queensland communities after announcing that it will acquire Bundaberg’s Duffy’s City Buses.

With 23 buses and 25 employees, family-owned Duffy’s holds government contracts to deliver important urban and school bus services in the Wide Bay region. Chris Duffy will remain in the business as managing director.

The move will see Kinetic expand its partnership with the Queensland government, now operating contracted urban and school bus services in Bundaberg, Mackay, Townsville, Magnetic Island, Rockhampton, Cairns, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

The company also operates charter bus services across the state and specialist workforce transportation services supporting the mining and resources sector.

Kinetic is the largest bus operator in Australia and New Zealand and the region’s biggest owner and operator of battery electric buses (BEBs). By the end of 2022, the company is expected to have 100 BEBs in operation, including 20 in Queensland across the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns.

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In January 2022, Kinetic also commenced a new $2.3 billion contract to operate a third of Melbourne’s bus network in partnership with the Victorian government.

Michael Sewards, Co-CEO of Kinetic, said: “Chris Duffy and family have built a business with a strong reputation and history operating in the community and we are completely aligned on our customer-first approach. We congratulate Chris and welcome the Duffy’s team into the Kinetic family as we offer our full support in their ongoing delivery of exceptional passenger outcomes for Bundaberg and the Wide Bay-Burnett region.”

Duffy’s Managing Director Chris Duffy said: “Duffy’s has a proud history in Bundaberg and Kinetic’s commitment to the communities in which it operates was important to us. They are well known across regional Queensland and we are excited for this next step in our long history and continuing to connect the people of Bundaberg.”

The transaction is expected to complete in June 2022. This acquisition will see Kinetic grow to almost 4,000 buses and 6,000 people across Australia and New Zealand.