As Barry Cobb of Johnsons Coaches prepares to step back from an almost 47-year career in coaching, he tells routeone about the highs and lows, and why quality will always matter.
On 16 October 1978, a day before his 22nd birthday, Barry Cobb stepped through the doors of Bowens Coaches in Birmingham to begin a career that has seen him work for just two operators; the aforementioned Bowens, and latterly, with Johnsons.
He enjoyed a 34-year career with Bowens, his time there only coming to an end when the Bowen Group entered administration in October 2012 with the subsequent loss of more than 400 jobs.
Wondering what he would do next, and thanks to a lead from a former work colleague, Barry found himself talking with John Johnson, then a director of Warwickshire-based Johnsons Coaches.
“John asked me what I was doing,” recalls Barry. “His Contracts Manager had gone on long-term sick leave and he was looking for someone to write a tour brochure. John knew that that was what I had been doing with Bowens so he said that if I was interested he could offer me a month’s work. I was interested and I was free, so I started in January 2013, and stayed!”
The learning begins
But back in 1978, fresh out of college with an HND in Business Studies, Barry had no real career plan, other than he wanted to do something in transport.
“I’d been a bus and train spotter when I was younger,” he says. “I decided that I might like to work for a coach operator, in the offices, not as a driver. I applied to several operators and it was Bowens, based in Alum Rock, just to the east of Birmingham city centre, that gave me a job in office administration. I cut my teeth in the traffic office, learning about private hire, schools and works contracts, day excursions and express holiday services.
“Bowens was a sizeable operator, with four depots and around 60 vehicles. From ‘Traffic’ I progressed to working in, and eventually taking control of, the excursions programme and express holiday services. We operated between 25 and 30 coach services on Saturdays from May to September to a variety of traditional seaside resorts. On the busiest days we would have upwards of 100 coaches and it was my responsibility to hire-in vehicles as needed.”
Barry recalls the need to apply for licences from the Traffic Commissioners to operate into other traffic areas.
“Arthur Butler was Bowen’s Licensing Officer, a really important job at the time. I remember going into appeal hearings at the West Midlands Traffic Commissioner with him. He was very eloquent. We usually won our appeals!”
Pilgrims and ice skating
“In the 1980s I started a career-long involvement in organising some very large vehicle movements, an aspect of coach operation that I’ve always loved and that has always given me a sense of achievement. My favourite event, and possibly a small claim to fame, was that for 17 years from the early 1990s, I had sole responsibility for the contracting, organisation and operation of the Birmingham Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage. We had to move between 800 and 1,400 pilgrims by coach, train or air from the West Midlands to France during Spring Bank Holiday week. The whole experience was both emotional and challenging, but very profitable for the business. On one occasion I remember flying out on a Boeing 747 and visiting the flight deck!
“In 1993, Bowens was awarded the contract for ticket allocation, accommodation and transport for the World Figure Skating Championships at the NEC in Birmingham. This was a monstrous event that took me to Canada and the United States, negotiating and liaising with some of the world’s major event organisations, culminating with the ground arrangements for the two-week event. I’m pleased to say the event ran smoothly and was a complete success.”
Disney and innovation
In the late 1980s Barry’s career changed tack with a role in a newly established ‘Wholesaling Department’.
“Bowens had decided to start selling continental European hotel and ferry packages to other operators,” he explains. “This gave me the opportunity to travel extensively around Europe, visiting and contracting hotels. The department expanded to include our ‘Private Groups’ activities. This grew further in the early 1990s with the opening of Disneyland Paris, then called Euro Disney. For three years I was a regular visitor as Bowens was one of the top performing operators. We regularly operated 18 to 20 coach movements at a time, with the record being a 33-coach event in the winter of 1993.”
Barry’s expertise in hotel contracting and brochure and itinerary writing that had started in the mid-1980s saw him promoted to Tours Manager in the mid-1990s. In 1995 he received the go-ahead from the Bowens Group board for a new innovation he had presented to them. Door-to-door home collection was still in its infancy, and only used by a small number of regional operators. Barry recognised that door-to-door could replace the existing coach feeder service operations which, on a multi-coach operations, could often be fraught with delays. Bowens was the first semi-national operator to offer the service.
Quality, and more quality
That, as they say, could have been that, with Barry on track to achieve more successes as part of the well-respected Bowens team. But with the events of 2012 heralding the end of the Bowen Group, and Barry finding a new home with Johnsons Coaches in leafy Warwickshire, he found himself focusing even more on quality.
“Bowens was all about volume,” explains Barry. “We were focused on the lower end of the hotel market. Johnsons was a step up, focusing on the three-star and four-star quality end of the spectrum. My aim over these last 12 years, latterly as Head of Product, has been to grow the product whilst ensuring the quality elements are maintained and developed. Our catchment area is one of the more affluent parts of the country, and the expectations and requirements of our customers are undoubtedly greater than ever before. John Johnson and I always shared similar thoughts on where we thought the market was going. We agreed that it was folly to worry too much about the competition so instead we focused on upholding and expanding our levels of quality.”
A significant development for both Barry and Johnsons came in 2020 with the launch of the ‘Luxury Traveller’ brand.
“We needed a coach to match the product,” says Barry. “The Irizar i8 did the job. The COVID-19 pandemic paused the roll-out, the full launch not taking place until May 2021. We now have five high-specification i8 coaches in the fleet, covering around 60% of our in-house tour programme. Our ‘Own Products’ touring fleet stands at 11, with the five i8 coaches supplemented by a mix of six ‘Club Class’ coaches. It’s a part of the overall Johnsons’ fleet that I can look back with pride and say were mine! I scheduled them.”
Leaving a great team
But one day in 2021, with Barry approaching his 65th birthday, John Johnson asked him a question.
“Barry, how many more brochures am I going to get out of you?”
It was a timely question.
“I estimate that I’ve written holiday brochures for around 30 years,” says Barry. “It has always been a job I’ve enjoyed. But of course, things can’t go on forever. In 2024, when I made the decision to go I started looking around to see who might replace me. I found Rob Carroll, another well-respected member of the coach tourism family, latterly with HF Holidays, but with experience gained with Airedale Tours, Leger Shearings, Wallace Arnold and Great Rail Journeys. We had a chat. He has a similar ethos to me. He’s a good fit.
“We have a team of six, two of us on product and four making it work. I want to mention Robbie Lee. He started as a bus driver and is now in tour planning. I see a lot of me in him. All the team are great. I’m leaving behind some really good people.”
Barry notes that, looking back, he’s always been happy getting on with organising things.
“I’ve never really wanted to do anything more,” he says. “I’m a nuts and bolts man, more a lieutenant than a general. Yes, I’ll be sad to leave, but I’ve worked with some incredible people over the years. I’ve also been able to share my own special interests with like-minded customers. That includes military history and I’ve been fortunate to escort several groups around the battlefields and memorial sites of the First World War.
“But now, the time is right for me to pass over the baton and free up some time to spend with my amazing wife, Jacqueline. She’s had to sacrifice so much in supporting me throughout my career. I feel I’ve always done my best, both for Bowens and Johnsons. I’ve made some really good friends across the industry and I will miss them. But times are changing and it’s time to go. I wish the new team well.”
