Ardrossan (service station and car repairs) and McKinnon of Kilmarnock (haulage). McMenemy of Ardrossan wound up their car repairs business in December 2004 and sold their premises to Clydeport plc, although the coach hire operation continued until March 2005. Docherty Of Irvine had always run a parallel coach hire firm separate to A1 Service and ventured back into local bus operation around the Irvine and Kilmarnock area in competition with Stagecoach Western in the late 1990s, but sold its routes and associated vehicles to Stagecoach Western in October 2004. Docherty ceased operations and sold its vehicles in 2009. The A1 service branding was removed from Stagecoach's vehicles on route 11 on 30 May 2010. The next day, Stagecoach rolled out 27 brand new buses in their corporate "swoops", spelling the end of the A1 livery after over 80 years. Competition During its existence as an independent concern, A1 Service experienced little to no competition on any of its services. A1 had a good working relationship with the neighbouring co-operative bus companies, AA Motor Services and Clyde Coast Services, and there was no competition between the three operators. Prior to bus deregulation in 1986, A1 Service did regularly spar with the dominant operator in the region, Western SMT (later Western Scottish). Western had a depot in Ardrossan and also offered a service from Ardrossan to Kilmarnock, though not nearly as frequent as that of A1 Service. Traffic Commissioners court battles took place between A1 Service and Western over the right to serve any new developments, particularly the Chapelhill housing estate in the north of Ardrossan. However, after deregulation any real threat from Western did not materialise and the company scaled down its presence in north Ayrshire. The 1980 Transport Act freed longer-distance coach services from regulation and a new operator, Bennett's of Kilwinning, pioneered express services between Ardrossan to Glasgow. A1 Service introduced a competing service. Ironically, Bennett's was to be one of the first Stagecoach acquisitions, and A1 Service found itself competing with the fledgling Perth-based operator. Stagecoach withdrew from the service, allowing Henry Crawford Coaches of Neilston to take over, and A1 itself later withdrew from the route. In the early 1990s locally based Valley Bus Company introduced a local circular service in competition with A1 in Saltcoats. A1 retaliated by introducing a parallel minibus service while its existing local services continued to run unaffected. After a few the