Oak Creek-based Riteway Bus Service Inc. has acquired Middlebury, Indiana-based Cardinal Buses Inc.
Riteway Bus operates as GO Riteway Transportation Group. The company has 1,475 employees in 22 locations. It provides transportation via more than 1,250 vehicles, including school buses, motor coaches, mini coaches, black cars and airport shuttles.
Cardinal Buses has about 150 employees at an office in Middlebury, and satellite offices in Mishawaka, Indiana and Holland, Michigan. It operates more than 50 charter buses that originate in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan, and take passengers anywhere in the 48 contiguous states or Canada. Its former owners, Matt and Dan Shoup, will stay on with the company for a few years in leadership roles, Matt Shoup said.
GO Riteway plans to keep the Cardinal branding in the markets where it operates, and retain all of the company’s employees. And GO Riteway said it plans to continue its regional expansion.
Milwaukee investment bank Bridgewood Advisors represented GO Riteway in the transaction.
“We have been looking to grow the geographic footprint of our motor coach business for years, but it was important for us to find a company that shared our family values,” said Ronald Bast, chairman of GO Riteway, in a statement. “We respect the business the Shoup family and their valued employees have built. Just like our name in our markets, their brand is a longtime symbol of safe and reliable passenger transportation.”