GREENOCK-based bus firm McGill's, which has been owned by the Easdale family for the last decade, has agreed to buy transport company Arriva's West Scotland division in a deal which will double its size.

The deal, thought to be worth more than £10 million, will add 165 buses to the McGill's fleet and about 380 employees to the Greenock firm's workforce.

McGill's, which currently operates most of its services in the Inverclyde area and also has a base at Barrhead, will take on depots at Johnstone and Inchinnan in Renfrewshire together with the associated routes and buses. Following completion of the deal, expected in late February or early March, McGill's will have more than 700 staff and in excess of 300 buses.

Ralph Roberts, managing director of McGill's, pledged "as seamless a transfer for staff and, ultimately, for passengers, as possible".

Elsewhere in the Scottish transport sector, north-east food tycoon Audrey Baxter is leaving the board of Aberdeen-based rail and bus company FirstGroup. Her decision to step down on December 31 was announced by FirstGroup with news of the retirement of two other directors.

Sidney Barrie, the Aberdeen lawyer who worked on the 1989 employee buy-out from Grampian Regional Transport that led to FirstGroup's creation, has announced his intention to retire as commercial director and will step down from the board in March.

Ms Baxter, executive chairman of Fochabers-based Baxters Food Group, has been on FirstGroup's board since August 2006 and chaired the remuneration committee since July 2009. The job of overseeing boardroom pay at FirstGroup will be passed to director David Begg, former transport committee convener on Edinburgh City Council.

The Herald was unable to contact Ms Baxter for comment as she returned to Scotland from a FirstGroup board meeting in London.

FirstGroup chairman Martin Gilbert said the company had benefited from Ms Baxter's "valuable contribution". Ms Baxter is also a member of Aberdeen University Court where the senior governor is former FirstGroup chief executive Sir Moir Lockhead, who retired from the transport company last year.

Martyn Williams, non-executive employee director, will also step down from FirstGroup's board on December 31 after nine years. Mick Barker, employee director at the group's London commuter rail service First Capital Connect, will replace him.