Country Lion: the pride of Northampton that roars quality

We visit an East Midlands coach operator steeped in history but with a focus on the future

While 1966 is most associated with the Three Lions, it was a significant year for coach operator Country Lion, which began its operation then. Since that time, it’s been anything but 57 years of hurt for the Northampton business. The operator’s story has been one of steady growth while trying to stick to its core values. 

Country Lion’s roots loosely go back much further, to around 100 years ago with the setting up of Palmerston Garage. The repair, fuel and accessories shop was bought by John Bull in 1962 and, four years later, he saw a gap in the market and acquired a fleet of six minibuses, marking the move into the industry. 

In 1971, John bought his first new minicoach, Bedford J2 with Plaxton Embassy body, and the company gradually acquired more and more vehicles and changed premises to accommodate a growing fleet — initially to St James Mill Road in the Eighties. That decade also saw it take on its first executive coach — a Bova Futura, helping to form that reputation for quality. In the Nineties, Country Lion bought Brittain’s Coaches and grew the fleet to 40 vehicles before purchasing land next door. The Noughties was marked by the purchase of Cloud Nine Holidays, which specialises in tours for the over-50s, and this led to investment in more top-end vehicles. 

John sadly died in 2010 but one of his last decisions was to buy new premises at Brackmills Industrial Estate on the outskirts of the town. It is there that Country Lion is still based, two lion statues standing guard near the entrance to the yard from which 54 vehicles now operate. The Country Lion den is now looked after by Dan O’Dell, John’s stepson, with Julie Bell, the wife of the late founder, and John’s stepsister, Michelle Cox, among the Directors. Two of Dan’s older stepbrothers were previously involved too.

Dan started out with the company as a 16-year-old 25 years ago. “I wanted to be a mechanic and my dad said to come down and learn on the buses. So, I went to college and did mechanics and then worked in the workshop for 20 years,” recalls Dan, who still has an affinity for tinkering with the engines. Transport Manager Paul Shaw chips in: “Sometimes, we’ll be having a senior management meeting and someone will have to go and drag Dan from under a bus!” 

Paul is the most experienced member of the management team, having started out as a trainee driver in 1989, and is perfectly placed to fill us in on how the business has developed. “When I started, we had about 16 vehicles, but over the years you wouldn’t recognise the business,” he says. “We were always ambitious and wanted to grow.” 

More recently, successes have included work in London during the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, operating shuttle runs for workers and services for shoppers due to deals with Barclaycard and Tesco respectively, and an increase in the number of school contracts — now numbering 45 per day. It also handles travel for football and cricket teams, football supporters and the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 team. 

Maintaining quality 

However, the team says it has always been keen to ensure that quality, customer service and safety are not compromised in the pursuit of growth. 

“We made a business decision that we wanted to pitch ourselves at the higher end of the market,” explains Paul, who adds that joining CoachMarque was a move to that end. “And when Earned Recognition came around, we thought, ‘we ought to be a part of this if you’re going to market yourselves as top-end’.” 

My dad’s ethos was, if you’re going to do it, do it properly. We want to carry on growing but strive to do it properly — that is the big thing – Dan O’Dell

Dan explains: “There’s no point in us growing and not doing it properly. We want to do it at a steady rate and still try to do the job properly for the right sort of customers.” 

Of course, the pandemic caused the growth to stall and Dan admits that the COVID-19 crisis set the business “back a couple of years”. However, it didn’t make any staff redundant and kept everyone on at 100% pay. As for the aftermath, Dan says: “I would say this year has been the real comeback year, though we are not quite back to 100% in terms of workload.” Part of this is due to the workforce losing a few older drivers during the pandemic and the business struggling a little to replace them. “One minute you’ve got enough drivers, then you haven’t,” says Dan. “You’re always treading water.” 

The importance of training 

Developing an in-house driver training programme has been useful in this regard, believes the team. Project Manager Dale Watkins is one of two staff who have recently become JAUPT-approved driving instructors. 

He explains: “We’ve shifted our focus now on to developing new staff. That’s enabled us to really quickly and efficiently develop really good drivers and that’s been invaluable. It makes a big difference to the business. It allows us to grow and look at new opportunities.”

The training is ongoing for drivers and all staff, though, and is not limited to Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC). Dale says: “We try to develop the staff in all areas of the business, not just the drivers, and we’re looking at how we can train and develop people to be the best operator. Recently, that included a course on safeguarding — there is no requirement to have safeguarding training, it doesn’t count towards DCPC — but we still felt it was the right thing to do.” 

On Cloud Nine 

The sister business Cloud Nine Holidays exemplifies that ethos of aiming for the top end. As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, it is returning well after the pandemic lull. Cloud Nine Senior Administrator Debbie Nightingale says the cost-of-living crisis meant customers booked later than usual for its mainly UK tours this year, but a recent 2024 brochure launch went well. “We work as a team alongside Country Lion and that makes a massive difference — having the coaches sat out there ready to go,” she says. Another string to the Country Lion bow is its 30-strong self-drive hire fleet.  

The Country Lion coach fleet is around 80% Euro VI and the business is keen to expand its PSVAR-compliant offering, even though Dan says the accessibility features don’t bring in sufficient work to match the extra expense. He says he wouldn’t buy any more vehicles that either didn’t meet with PSVAR or offered provision for the later installation of a lift. 

An eye on the future… and the past 

Despite Country Lion being rooted 57 years into the past, the business is always looking to move with the times. It’s the experienced Paul who tells us: “Quite often if you get an older workforce in management they get set in their ways, but it doesn’t happen here.” 

Dale, described as the “ideas man”, explains: “We’re always looking at ways we can improve the business, which is why we’ve set up this business development department. We constantly look at new technology and projects that will improve the business.” As an example, he highlights generative AI technology, which automatically writes social media posts. “It’s been game-changing,” he says. Another is an app which allows parents to know when their children are boarding and alighting the vehicles, which the company turned to when feeling it was losing business to the likes of Zeelo and Kura. 

However, despite always looking to modernise, Country Lion was keen to form a link to its past when buying back and restoring the first coach bought by John. Dan had long been chasing the Bedford Plaxton and were finally offered it three years ago by Empress Coaches of Hastings. “We bit their hand off,” he says. “It had already been restored to a reasonable condition. We had the exterior repainted to the original livery. It’s more for posterity. We’ve used it for weddings, a prom night and heritage days. We brought it back more for personal than business reasons.”

“My dad’s ethos was, if you’re going to do it, do it properly, and plan for what you’re going to do,” he says. “There’s always been a plan in mind. We want to carry on growing but strive to do it properly — that is the big thing.”