Berwick ten years later, leaving the town routes to a local independent operator, Perryman's Buses. Lowland Scottish became the first of the SBG subsidiaries to be privatised when in August 1990 the company's management and employees bought the business for £3.1m through their holding company Reiver Ventures Ltd., the word "Scottish" then dropped from the company's legal and trading names at that time. Lowland had been a profitable unit within the SBG thanks largely to the limited competition in its rural territory, though this operating area did not give much scope for expansion. The company therefore sought to develop its coach business and to expand its presence in the more populated Lothians area. In 1991 the bus and coach business of Ian Glass Coaches was acquired, with a depot in Haddington. The depot in Dunbar closed shortly afterwards, as the East Lothian area operations were concentrated on Haddington. Smaller takeovers were of Shanks ('Border Travel') of Galashiels in 1992 and Grieve's Taxis of Hawick in 1993. Diversification included the acquisition of a van hire firm, and development of the PSV/HGV driving school business inherited from Shanks. The company also acquired an interest in Lothian Transit of Newtongrange, a low-cost operator running tendered bus services in the Edinburgh area. Demise In November 1994, GRT Group (which later became FirstGroup) bought Reiver Ventures for £2.4m. GRT had purchased neighbouring Eastern Scottish (now trading as SMT once more) the previous month, and with its ownership of Midland Bluebird (the old Midland Scottish), GRT operated across a substantial part of central Scotland, from Oban in the west coast to the border with England. Reorganisation of the three companies quickly followed, breaking SMT in two and merging the parts with Midland and Lowland. As a result, Lowland inherited SMT's Dalkeith and Musselburgh depots in 1996. This changed the focus of the company from a rural operator serving the Borders to one dominated by suburban services around Edinburgh, and coincided with the start of a gradual retrenchment in the south which eventually resulted in the closure of all of the Borders depots except Galashiels. When the 'First' corporate style was introduced, the trading names First Lowland and First SMT were used, the latter being restricted to the former SMT operations around Edinburgh. A final round of reorganisation in 1999 saw Lowland Omnibuses absorbed into Midland Bluebird Ltd and a new company, First Edinburgh Ltd. Subsequently FirstGroup