Avon Buses, as the company was originally known, was founded in August 1981 by present proprietor Larry Smith. By 1995 it had six buses and ran mostly school contracts plus one local route. The newest buses were two Leyland Titans. Since then the company has expanded with services starting in Crosby, Fazakerley and their former outstation in Bootle. The business was renamed Avon Buses was made in 2004/05.Avon Buses took over former Arriva North West routes 421 and 422, renumbering them to 22 and 22A. Avon then decided to renumber service 22A to 24 so it would not confuse its passengers with Helms Coaches service 23. They also took over five other groups of routes at the same time. After Helms Coaches service was withdrawn, Avon Buses decided not to up the frequency of routes 22 and 24 but add an additional Sunday 23 service from Heswall to Chester Bus Exchange, which was eventually withdrawn in April 2011.[citation needed]In October 2013 Avon took on eight routes from Impera Bus & Coach following the latter ceasing to trade.