User:Yanlib/sandbox
History
[edit]The company was founded in 1968 by Ricardo B. Yanson and his wife, Olivia Villaflores Yanson, beginning with the purchase of one jeepney unit. This effort ultimately became a jeepney-assembly business. In the early 1970s, the market was flooded with Ford Fieras; the couple decided to diversify into a small bus line which plied the Bacolod City-Valladolid-La Carlota route (hence, Vallacar) and christened it Ceres Liner.
By 1980, Ceres Liner had covered the whole province of Negros and in 1981, they ventured into Mindanao. They bought out Fortune Express and Bachelor Express, both Cagayan de Oro-based bus companies in 1985, and formed Rural Transit of Mindanao, while retaining the name of the latter, as one of the conditions of the contract of sale. In 2005, the conglomerate bought out Lilian Express Inc. and sister company Mary May Express, its fiercest business rival and became the dominant transit company in the island of Mindanao. In 2007, its buses pioneered travel through the Western Nautical Highway.