Q‑Park operates at the heart of cities across the UK and Ireland, managing a network of car parks that increasingly serve as part of a wider urban mobility system. As cities evolve, embracing smart technology, EV infrastructure and more connected ways of moving, the role of parking is changing with them.
We recently spoke with Adam Bidder Managing Director of Q‑Park UK & Ireland, to reflect on nearly two decades of change within the industry. From the shift towards multifunctional mobility hubs to the opportunities and challenges shaping the parking market, he shares his perspective on how Q‑Park is adapting, growing and positioning itself to support cities, customers and stakeholders into the future.
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How did your journey at Q‑Park begin?
I joined here in 2007, so 19 years ago. Initially as Finance Director and subsequently was made Managing Director later that year. Around 10 years ago I was also made Managing Director in Q-Park Ireland.
How do you see Q-Park’s role evolving in the context of smart cities, EV infrastructure and changing urban mobility?
I've seen a huge amount of change in the 19 years I've been here where car parks were very much seen as car parks. Over that period we've seen some element of consolidation of car parks, so there's been very few new car parks built for multifunctional purposes, certainly since Covid, but probably for a few years. And what you have also seen at the same time, so you've got a smaller number of car parks, but you've also had a widened number of requirements for them, such as EV and other multi-uses of mobility, such as car hire or a variety of other things. People see them more as a network to be able to use as part of a multifunctional mobility as well.
If my son was here he'd drive in and get the train then to his next destination maybe vice versa, so I think people see car parks differently and we get more interest from whether it be councils, developers, etc. And if you think about for example EV charging where else are you going to charge in a city, you could do that on the street but all that does is increase the amount of congestion. So people know that they’ve got somewhere, they know they can come to a Q-Park they're going to be safe. So you know I believe that that's moved hugely over the last 20 years and I see that continuing to evolve and continue to provide opportunities for us and our stakeholders.
What would you say are the biggest opportunities and threats in the UK and Ireland parking market?
I think certainly the opportunity is the size of the market and the constituents of that market. We did a survey ourselves recently in terms of understanding the market and there are around 200 parking companies in the UK depending on exactly how you class that. It's very, very difficult for all those companies to provide the amount of technological advancement that's required in smart cities, in an evolving world, so I think that's bound to lead to consolidation. You see that in other industries over time, I think we see that both in the UK and Ireland that there will be consolidation. I think the use of our technology then means that we can be at the front of that.
We've acquired Britannia, we've acquired Parkrite, Tazbell in Ireland and that's provided new opportunities for us to offer different services in their markets and to kind of join the two together, and we see that as an opportunity. I think there's a threat that people get involved in things that they don't need to get involved in, so it's sometimes easy for a council with an anti-car mindset to get involved, and obviously it's not necessarily good for our business.
But the whole basis of Q-Park has always been to provide a number of options around the city as opposed to in the centre of the city. More than often if I'm offered opportunities right in the centre of the city I'm not really interested. So we look to provide opportunities for people to park with Q-Park whether they're coming in from the North, East, South, West, of the city for example, and hopefully that will mean that people will see it as something that is good for people to have the option rather than forcing them not to come to the city centre which is not going to be good for everyone in the long-term.
What’s been your proudest moment leading the UK and Ireland businesses so far?
I'm a big believer in the proudest moment is today, is tomorrow. I genuinely think you get prouder each day that you work with the business because if you look at the size of Q-Park in the UK when I became a Managing Director and you look at it now it's ten times bigger. You're proud because it's grown, that you work with 800 people not 50 people now, that we can provide different services in healthcare, airports. In the enforcement area we can offer a different type of enforcement service where we're not just trying to ambulance chase we're not just trying to catch people out we're trying to ultimately provide a service so think the proudest moment is today.
What excites you most about where the parking industry is headed and how Q-Park is positioning itself to lead that change?
We recently did a survey on the parking industry and we saw there's about a couple of hundred companies depending exactly how you look at it. We have to accept there are different challenges, there's going to be different challenges because this is never going to be a product people necessarily embrace or look forward to, but people I think do increasingly see the importance of providing that fairly. So as I say in the UK and Ireland, we have paid parking but we have enforcement parking, so I think the industry will consolidate i.e. there will be less companies over a period of time.
I think it needs to do because if you're going to embrace technology, implement technology, and if you look generally (I do a lot of investing myself), if it's going to improve with technology, that normally means consolidation. I see the industry consolidating, that excites me because I think Q-Park will be at the forefront of looking for opportunities, which we are all the time. And I think from that, it will allow us to use our technology in areas it wouldn't otherwise have got to and to other customers that otherwise wouldn't have been able to see that in maybe a smaller parking environment.
In a business that’s often behind the scenes, how do we show Q-Park are seen and connected in the world of mobility?
It's a good question in terms of it being behind the scenes. I mean, I'm someone who doesn't yearn fame if you like, and within any industry there would be people who will like that and some people who would rather take a back seat. So I'm always happy that we take a back seat and we let the kind of service, the quality in Q-Park do its own talking. But I think I definitely see for me, over the 19 years, we don't have to try as much. People come to us more and ask for our views and are interested in what we can do within that mobility. I do think again that's changed in more recent years.
When I was a lad… 10 years ago, people would come to a city to shop whereas now it's multifunctional. People come for an experience rather than just to do something. So we used to have a phrase of fun shop or run shop for example and now you're going to the theatre, you're going to the cinema, you're having a meal, you're having a cafe culture. I think people therefore see that we can touch a whole more variety of different stakeholders again. And therefore the more we can try and provide an option to people who do want to drive or indeed want to use the other mobility services offered, then actually we kind of let the product and the service do its own talking. So I think there are a number of opportunities where people come to us and we want to kind of embrace those and work with different stakeholders.
How do you spend your downtime when you’re not steering the ship?
I try and spend as much time with a family as I can who are growing up. They left home recently, so in the winter more on my private investing in terms of research and investing in different companies, which I do find incredibly useful on a day-to-day job, understanding the wider industry. My wife tells me I need to switch off, but I'm always looking for that angle of how Q-Park can get involved in that, so I find that interesting and hopefully rewarding.
And then the real passion will be the fruit and veg. I enjoy being outside. I suppose maybe that's because you're inside a lot during the day, but at the weekend, I like to be outside as much as I can, either walking or otherwise in the garden, growing my own fruit and veg and flowers. A higher return on capital employed on flowers! Yeah, it's applying that business knowledge to fruit and veg.
Which is your favourite Q-Park car park? (UK & Ireland)
That is a question I've been asked a lot. I did a BBC podcast recently, where I was asked that, and I always say it's very difficult because you would say, which is my favourite child? Is it my son or my daughter? Now, you always have a favourite, but you don't like to tell them, and that changes over time so maybe it's like car parks. If I was pushed for an answer I think I'd probably say Q-Park First Street in Manchester would be one that would come to mind because that was an area which was not developed at all. It was a bit of a backwater of Manchester just on the edge and now it's very much a gateway as you come off the ring road into Manchester and it very much talks about what Q-Park is about.
It's an important part of that overall development, mixed-use development, offices, residents, hotels and it also it's close to the transport network so if people want to get a train or they want to just walk into Manchester you're not getting stuck in the middle of Manchester and you know had it not been for our involvement the chances are that that development would never happen so that would be my favourite in the UK. In Ireland I would have to say Q-Park The Spire because that's where our head office is and again I've seen a lot of change in that car park over the years it was a little bit of a sad looking car park and it was refurbished to a very very good standard, it's now got mobility services, car hire, bikes people will use it again on the edge and you can get the Luas into the centre of Dublin and as I say probably the cherry on the top (or on the bottom) is the fact our colleagues in Ireland are lucky enough to go there every day and work in that office together.
About Q-Park
Q-Park is a leading off-street parking infrastructure owner and operator with well-managed commercial parking facilities across seven western European countries. We operate off-street parking spaces we own, have under concession or with long-term lease contracts from public and private landlords. We focus on off-street purpose-built parking facilities at strategic locations. We operate more than 5,300 parking facilities comprising over 1 million parking spaces in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. Based on publicly available industry data for our competitors, we estimate that we are a top three player, based on the estimated off-street revenues, in all the countries in which we operate. Q-Park also has numerous mobility hubs which provide access to a variety of mobility solutions. We house and support a range of activities from last mile logistics, electric vehicle charging, micromobility and car sharing services which help support urban accessibility, sustainability and liveability.
