CT Plus, HCT Group’s main operating brand in London, is to change its name. On 19 August 2019, all services that currently operate as CT Plus in London will now come under the HCT Group banner.

“As a brand, CT Plus has done its job” explains Frank Villeneuve-Smith, HCT Group’s Communications Director. “When CT Plus was established as a brand for our operating arm back in the early 2000’s, it was created to make a distinction between work we were doing commercially, and work we were doing socially.

“People weren’t really used to the idea of social enterprise back then – where commercial contracts support a social mission. This is a pretty mainstream idea now and we’ve shown that we can make it work. The need for a split in name is a thing of the past.

“By bringing all the work all under one brand in London, we can stop a quite confusing situation for our stakeholders – we communicate as HCT Group, but we deliver as CT Plus. It’s now time to unify the two and create one label. This will have a knock on benefit for staff, who see HCT Group gain recognition as a social enterprise, but don’t necessarily get the credit for their hard work. Coming under the same banner means CT Plus staff get the recognition they deserve.”

The need for the operating arm itself remains for regulatory reasons.  CT Plus CIC, the operating company, will stay, but be renamed HCT Group Operations CIC.

There will be no drastic changes in the rebrand – it’s only a name change and the visual identities of HCT Group and CT Plus are very close. In addition to new legal lettering on vehicles, we’ll see new logos on vehicles and some new signage emerging over the summer.

The change does not affect the CT Plus operations in Yorkshire, Guernsey or Jersey. Services in Bristol operated by CT Plus will see their legal lettering change, but they have been operating under the Bristol Community Transport banner for some time.  

Details:

Media contact: Frank Villeneuve-Smith at 0207 608 8969 or email [email protected].

CT Plus CIC is a community interest company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of HCT Group, which is a registered charity. It is the principal operating arm of the organisation in London and Bristol, delivering contract transport services under an operator’s licence. It is this legal entity which with be changing its name: CT Plus CIC (branded as CT Plus) to HCT Group Operations CIC (branded as HCT Group).