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The story
In September 1981 Midland Red East was formed with 181 buses operating from five depots in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire as part of the breakup of the Midland Red bus company, and in January 1984 was renamed Midland Fox. In 1987 it was privatised in a management buyout. Several smaller operators including Loughborough Bus & Coach Company were purchased and in 1989 it was sold to the Drawlane Group. In November 1992 it was sold to British Bus which in August 1996 was sold to the Cowie Group.
In September 1996 the Sandacre Street, Leicester depot was closed. In November 1997 the Cowie Group was renamed Arriva and Midland Fox was rebranded as Arriva Fox County. In 2003 Arriva Fox County merged with Arriva Derby and Arriva Midland North to form Arriva Midlands.
On 11 July 2009 the Southgates depot closed and then on 3 October 2011 the Thurmaston depot and head office moved to a new purpose built depot on Westmoreland Avenue.
Arriva operated services around the Hinckley area until August 2008 when the operations were sold to Centrebus Holdings, a joint venture between Centrebus and Arriva. Arriva regained the Hinckley operations during 2013 when Centrebus ended their involvement in Centrebus Holdings and Arriva rebranded the Hinckley operation as Hinckley Bus, During late 2018 Arriva merged the Hinckley Bus services into their Leicestershire operations with the Hinckley Bus name ceasing to exist.
From Wikipedia’s article on Arriva Midlands East, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3