For any coach operator, surviving to celebrate a centenary is undoubtedly a significant achievement. In Suffolk, Belle Coaches has done just that, but not without meeting a few challenges along the way
Perhaps every coach operator has a box of bunting stored safely away, ready to be brought out to celebrate one anniversary or another. Indeed, reading through the pages of routeone, bunting has recently been much in evidence.
Based in Lowestoft, Belle Coaches is the latest operator to reach for the box, this time to celebrate its centenary.
But it’s not Lowestoft where I’ve headed. Some 24 miles south is the village of Leiston. Established in 1961, initially as an outstation to service the demands of the nearby United States Air Force (USAF) bases as Bentwaters and Woodbridge, ‘Belle Coaches Yard’, as Google Maps so eloquently describes it, is the company’s second depot and its maintenance hub.
I’m meeting Amy Churchyard, Belle’s Director since picking up the reins from her father, Ken Shreeve, in 2015.
It’s a spacious yard, benefiting from its location on the southern edge of a delightfully rural village that also boasts a ‘Belle Coaches’ travel shop. More about that in a moment.
Amy gives me a potted history.
The ‘Belle’ provenance
“My great grandfather, Benjamin Shreeve, together with a business partner Charles Day, had been running a bus service between Lowestoft and Oulton Broad using a 14-seat Model T Ford charabanc,” she explains. “That partnership was dissolved in 1924 and Benjamin started his own company operating summer outings and carrying local football and darts teams. By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 his fleet had grown to seven coaches.”
Amy notes that although non-essential journeys ceased, the coaches were kept busy evacuating children and on other contracts for the then Ministry of Defence.
“Our company name is B.R. Shreeve and Sons Limited,” continues Amy. “It’s been like that since 1943. But what I really like about our history is that Benjamin gave the coaches names, including ‘MayBelle’, after his wife, Mabel, ‘HeatherBelle’ and ‘PleasureBelle’. Over time the name ‘Belle’ took hold, and has stayed with us to this day.”
DIY body building
“After the war, new coaches were in very short supply so the company started building its own vehicles,” she says. “Details are a little sketchy but we think around 20 vehicles were completed. It seems that a chassis, likely to have often been an old Bedford OB, was used with some parts being supplied by Duple. Those parts, especially windows, were hung in place and the rest of the body completed around them. That activity continued through to 1964.”
Amy explains that by the 1950s, Benjamin’s three sons: Ernest, John and Alan, were working in the business. In 1959, the acquisition of a local operator brought with it the USAF contracts. John established the new depot at Leiston to service the contract with Ernest and Alan focusing on Lowestoft.
“During the 1970s, with further acquisitions, the fleet grew to 60 vehicles,” says Amy. “Today our fleet stands at 28, with around a third based here at Leiston. But in the meantime, my father, Ken, who is John’s son, and Robert, Ernest’s son, had come together to run the business. The USAF bases closed in the early 1990s and the fleet started to reduce. We also started our own coach holiday programme under the name of ‘Lazy Days Holidays’. That saw us upgrading the fleet with the purchase of several executive coaches.”
A need to stabilise
Fast forward to 2011 and Amy joins the business.
“I’d been working in the council tax department at our local authority,” she says. “But there were limited job opportunities. In the meantime, I’d passed my PCV test when I was 19 and had been doing the odd bit of driving for my father. So, in the March of 2011, aged 26, I started working alongside Robert and Ken, learning the ropes. But by the October, financial pressures required a rethink. Something had to happen.
“That something saw a staff restructure, with Robert focusing on the finances and my father focusing on operations. We also moved the Lowestoft depot out to a new site in Haddenham Road. I’m pleased to say that all of that stabilised things. In 2015, Robert retired leaving my father and I in charge. Ken stepped back in 2020 when COVID-19 hit.”
In the meantime, in 1993, a small retail outlet had been acquired in Leiston’s High Street to sell tours and excursions.
“The premises had been a coal shop,” says Amy. “I understand that John was against the idea, but with the yard being away from the town centre the location gave us a shop window where we could be seen. In 1996 we moved to the present travel shop. It’s opposite Leiston’s cinema, so it continues to give us visibility. It’s also a great place for our customers who want to come and book our tours and excursions in person.”
With everything moving along well, and with 2019 being one of the company’s strongest years, along came COVID-19.
“It was almost a total shutdown,” says Amy. “But we were very fortunate that our local authority recognised our role as part of the hospitality industry, and we received some additional grants. Looking back, it was touch and go, but we got through it.”
Setra and Van Hool workhorses
“For our front line fleet, 53 seats is our standard spec,” explains Amy. “We’ve just taken delivery of a 13m Tourismo, registration BC24 BEL. We took three Tourismos into the fleet in 2022 and 2023. We have a 19-plate 30-seat Indcar Wing and have just bought a very tidy 2015 Scania Omni. Between 2005 and 2012 we bought Setras. Along with a 1999 Van Hool Alizee they have been real workhorses.
“But last year, as we started talking to dealers about fleet renewal, we realised there was little out there. Hardly anyone was trading in. The market had all but come to a halt. It will ease of course but all of that is now another challenge, along with the ever present concern over drivers. To be honest, whatever is put in front of me now I take in my stride. We just have to get on with it!”
One of those challenges is home to school transport.
“We operate both local authority contracted services and registered services,” says Amy. “But one of those registered services, where separate fares are paid, requires BODS compliance. We work with ShuttleID with drivers using tablets. But we’ve found ourselves in a situation where a service that is absolutely run for a school, but appears on the BODS database, sees members of the public wanting to travel on it. That could present problems so it does highlight where BODS needs reviewing.”
Anniversary tours
On a more positive note, tours and excursions, which had been struggling a little before the pandemic, are back and increasing in popularity.
“We’re running a series of ‘Anniversary Tours’ to celebrate the centenary,” says Amy. “I’m going to be the hostess, and yes, I’m calling myself a hostess! We’re off to Harrogate, Morecambe and Newquay. I can’t wait!”
Belle provides coaches for third party tour operators, including Just Go! Holidays, Grand UK Holidays and their subsidiaries.
“For our own tours we run feeders, collecting customers from the many rural areas where a full-size coach simply couldn’t operate,” explains Amy. “Hotel prices have gone up, so we’ve increased our prices accordingly, but we aim to be competitive. Perhaps the biggest challenge is London. We usually have two drivers to allow time for running around finding somewhere to park. We also have two drivers on our continental tours, to mitigate delays at the ports and to ensure maximum hours and mileage covered.”
I ask Amy how the company will be celebrating its 100th.
“We’re holding an open day at our Lowestoft depot on 24 June, the actual day of the anniversary,” she says. “We also have an anniversary tour going off to Torquay the day before, with David Dickinson, one of our original tour managers driving. Then in January, our quiet time, we’ll have a big staff party.
“100 years ago, Benjamin Shreeve started this business. Reaching our centenary is hugely satisfying, but I have to say, we wouldn’t be where we are without what is, and has been, our first-class Belle Coaches team!”
