About us
The familiar yellow signage of NCP at car parks has become synonymous with parking in town centres, airports and railway stations all over the United Kingdom. Founded in 1931 NCP is today’s market leader in the provision of parking services supplying over 200,000 spaces across more than 700 locations.
NCP’s beginnings were quite humble, and it wasn’t until it’s acquisition by Central Car Parks in 1959 that the success story really began to take shape. Central Car Parks had been founded in 1949 by Ronald Hobson, who was soon joined by Donald Gosling (later to become Sir Donald Gosling).
As entrepreneurs they had identified a huge market in the London area buying up city centre sites and converting them into car parks. Adopting the name National Car Parks heralded a period of expansion, which saw the business continue to grow throughout the following years as NCP acquired a series of car parks and petrol stations and began to manage car parking contracts for third parties.
A period of uninterrupted success meant that by the 1990’s NCP was one of the countries most successful privately owned organisations. It was this success that prompted the sale in 1998 to US firm Cendant and a re-focus of the company’s operations, changing from a property owning company into a more service-focused organisation in the broader transport sector.
In 1999 the company launched the UK’s first private-public partnership – setting up a joint venture with Manchester City Council to establish NCP Manchester Ltd (NML).
NCP also began to develop business contracts in the provision of enforcement services for local authorities, vehicle removals and debt recovery, where by 2005 it had become market leader in its field.
Subsequent sales in 2002 to Cinven and in 2005 to private equity house 3i are testimony to the company’s continuing success and attractiveness to the market place.
In order to maximise the growth potential of both sides of the business, in 2007 the original parking arm of the company National Car Parks Limited was separated from the newer service-based side of the business (NCP Services Ltd) creating two distinct and diverse companies.
National Car Parks Limited (the original parking operator) was acquired at this point by Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II and continues to be the market leader in its sector, increasing its turnover and national distribution significantly over the past 6 months. With a clear strategy for growth and a dynamic management team, NCP is ideally placed to capitalise on its experience and knowledge within the parking sector.
NCP Case Studies: