Moventia, a family-run multi-national company specialising in the mobility sector, has been awarded a tender to manage intercity buses in Saudi Arabia for the next ten years. More specifically, the company (which is celebrating its centenary in 2023) has been given one of three lots in the contract governing this service in the north-west of the country valued at more than 500 million euros. The new project will be operated by Moventis, the public transport division of Moventia, as part of a consortium with Al Qaid, a Saudi bus company. The transport network consists of 23 lines and an estimated 1.5 million passengers per year, with a hub located in Jeddah covering the entire Red Sea corridor as well as branches that head inland for connections to other cities, including Mecca, Medina and Riyadh.
The project will be launched in September of this year, for which the consortium will purchase 150 12-metre buses and all the technology needed for sales and operation. It will also include the management of six bus stations, eight bus depots and nearly 100 bus stations in several cities. The team working on this project will consist of 500 people from a number of different countries.
Jordi Castells, the Managing Director of Moventis B2B and head of the division for Saudi Arabia, said “with this new project, Moventia continues to make progress on its growth strategy in Saudi Arabia, where our knowledge in the sector and excellent relations with the local authorities and our local partners mean that we are consolidating our presence and actively contributing to the development of the passenger transport sector in the country”.
In 2017, Moventia was given its first contract in Saudi Arabia to operate the urban transport service in Mecca. Following an initial five-year period in which the company completed the roll-out process (bus manufacture, the implementation of on-board technology, employee recruitment and depot construction; including garages, control centres, offices and employee housing), service operation successfully began in 2022. This service has led to mobility improvements for not only the inhabitants of Mecca but also the millions of pilgrims who travel to this city every year. With operations fully up and running now, Moventis has a workforce of 1,200 employees, 12 bus lines and 400 vehicles in the country, with which it successfully carried more than 25 million passengers in 2022.
It should also be noted that these concession contracts form part of a Saudi nationalisation plan embodied in its ‘Vision 2030’ strategy. This roadmap seeks to diversify business activity in the country beyond oil production and to boost such sectors as finance or industry with a view to becoming an international tourist destination.
International strategy
Moventia is a benchmark multi-national company in the mobility sector that is focused on growth and internationalisation. It began a process of expansion in 2016 through a public bicycle service in Helsinki. Seven years later, it now operates on three continents (Europe, Asia and America) through various public transport services.
Under this international expansion strategy, France has consolidated itself as a significant market for Moventia alongside Saudi Arabia. In 2017, the company won a contract to manage the urban, intercity and school bus service in the Montbéliard region and, in 2022, it was given another contract to manage the urban and school bus service in the Pays de Grasse agglomeration community in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of France (PACA).