From ‘a little backroom’ to a fully equipped depot with an onsite workshop, Dan’s Luxury Travel has come a long way on its 44-year journey
Can you remember the first vehicle you bought and how much you paid for it?
On a visit to its new depot, Dan Brown, Managing Director of Dan’s Luxury Travel, not only remembers what his first vehicle was to launch his operation – then named Dans Mini-Bus Hire – but he had the original invoice for the purchase of it.
Dan started with £250 and that minibus, a 12-seater Ford Transit which he paid £1,050 for. He knows this 44 years on, because he still has the original agreement from Lombard North Central that he shows us.
Since 1974, when it was first launched, the business has thrived and flourished with the help of Dan’s family. And along the way, has bought other business into the fold to strengthen the firm.
The growth that the company has seen has meant it’s been witness to many changes to the industry and to its own operation.
Multiple depot moves, and now Dan’s Luxury Travel is settling in to its new home in Essex.
Game changer
Over the years, Dan’s Luxury Travel grew at a rapid rate and Dan explains the growth decade by decade.
Within three years of its outset, the company had seven vehicles. Dan says within 12 years it bought 29-seater Optare StarRiders and within 15, had decided to buy “bigger coachers”.
The business grew, and in 1976, Dan bought Lea Valley Coaches, followed by Essex Coachways in the ‘90s.
Described as “a game-changing year” for Dan’s Luxury Travel, it was in 2013 when it bought West’s Coaches after the retirement of its owner Bob West.
The purchase of West’s brought the business to a combined £3.5m turnover.
“West’s had 17 coaches, so by 2014 I had a fleet of 47,” he says. “Then I started to realise that it was time to downsize to make more profits – save on driver wages, fuel, and servicing and so on. We’ve now reduced the fleet to 30 coaches, from 19-, 29-, 35-, 51-, and 74-seaters.”
From buses to business
Dan started his career in the industry in 1968 at London Transport as a bus conductor, working on routes 9 and 11 into central London. “Then I got promoted to bus driver and got my PSV licence,” he says.
“I then left the buses, bought a little minibus and got a school contract. I just took any job that came in and never turned any work away.”
The business launched in a little backroom of a terraced house in Highams Park, London, but the rapid expansion saw its first move to an office in the North Farm area of Loughton.
But again, the firm outgrew this “small depot” and the result was a move to the Royal Forest Coach House in Chingford.
New beginnings
Dan’s Luxury Travel runs a varied sized fleet, operating private hires and day tours. To cater for the number of vehicles Dan had acquired, a new depot was needed.
Another move in February of this year, and the firm is now based in Waltham Abbey, Essex.
Says Dan: “We moved to this new depot so we could have all of our eggs in one basket, as we had two separate depots at our previous location.”
The premises are large and can store all vehicles in the adjacent yard – unlike before when the yard was separate to the offices.
There is also an on-site garage where all vehicle maintenance and inspections are carried out as well as multiple offices for staff.
The future
With its 45th anniversary coming up next year, Dan is looking at the future of the industry, as well as his business – with strong views on new regulations and low emission zones.
“I think coach companies are going now, gradually. It’s getting harder and harder – especially with all these laws coming in. I don’t advise anybody to start up,” says Dan.
“I don’t agree with low emission zones. It’s wrong and it’s knocking companies out of the game.
“It’s £20,000 to convert coaches now, whereas the last time it was about £3,000. It’s killing the industry,” he adds.
In the last three years, Dan says there has been a £1.5m investment into the business. But when it comes to increasing the fleet, he explains why the firm is settled with its current position.
He says: “We won’t expand anymore. We’ll just keep as we are, as it doesn’t pay to expand.”
In the family
Business succession is an important factor for most operators to consider. When there isn’t anyone to carry on the family firm, it can be a concern. However, this is not something Dan has had to worry about.
At the age of 12, his son, Nick, dipped his foot into the family business by helping to clean the coaches in the school holidays.
He then went onto passing his coach test at the age of 18 – at the time, Dan says he was the youngest in England to drive a coach.
“My son used to come to work with me when he was about eight years old, I used to take him in on Saturdays,” Dan says.
“He started getting involved and looking at how the business ran – now he’s managing it and I’ve been able to take a backseat.”
It was in 2013 that Dan handed the reins over to Nick. It is now his aim, as Director, to drive the business into the next decade.
