The name Stantons of Stoke is relatively new to the coach and bus industry, but the mind behind it is not. Far from it, in fact. Founder and MD Keith Stanton called on his almost four decades’ experience accrued with a wide variety of operators in Staffordshire before founding the business in 2013.
Stantons of Stoke now has an authorisation for 35 vehicles. It undertakes a variety of work that would be hard to beat, with accessible minibuses for SEN work and a selection of two- and three-axle coaches bookending a smaller number of buses that are for local service work.
The rationale behind such a mixed bag is clear. Most of what Stantons does is contracted. Keith is mindful that the tendered market can sometimes be volatile, whether that is down to funding pressures or other operators’ wishes to enter new sectors.
Paying heed to the age-old saying about eggs and baskets, Keith and his team – and Stantons is a family business – have steadily grown the company into something that is much more diverse than it was when it started.
Stantons of Stoke: Putting experience to use
Stantons came into being when Keith purchased a fleet of accessible minibuses and two coaches previously operated by Arriva from a depot in Stoke-on-Trent. Arriva’s bus network in Stoke was then disposed of to another operator as it made a hasty exit from North Staffordshire.
Keith had experience in SEN transport. Before Arriva’s coming he had built the former Wardle Transport operation into something respectably sized, and that was what attracted the group. After Arriva purchased Wardle, Keith found himself in a variety of other roles in the wider business.
But they were not as hands-on as he would have liked. It was, he says, “leading to too much time in the car.”
That approach goes all the way back to Keith’s earliest days in the industry. His late father Bill ran BC Travel, which in its heyday took delivery of two new examples of the then-exotic combination of a Caetano Alpha body on a Ford chassis.
BC Travel came to an end in 1981, but Keith had already learned much about the industry. “I never had a summer holiday. As soon as school finished I was into the business, working in the garage,” he says.
Learning the industry from the inside out
After leaving education he moved to long-gone operator Berresfords of Cheddleton, starting an apprenticeship. The first job of each day was to bail out the flooded pits. That was often followed by rescuing parts from condemned vehicles.
“Changing a gearbox in the wind and rain was not for me. Even then I wanted to be a manager. But I also knew that if I was going to be a boss then I wanted to be one like my father was. He was respected by his staff and people liked working for him. To achieve that I needed to learn the industry from the inside out.”
That began with driving. Keith spent several years on local bus work with Stevensons of Uttoxeter and Potteries Motor Traction before moving onto coaches, including a stint with departed operator Proctors Coaches of Fenton. His first steps into managerial roles were with Bassetts of Tittensor and a second period with Stevensons.
Moving into SEN work
After Bassetts Keith moved to Wardle and thence to Arriva. “I built Wardle up to 65 vehicles before it was sold, so I knew what the business plan was and how to be successful in that field. When the opportunity came to take on the minibuses and coaches I did so with the intention of building Stantons.”
All the drivers and passenger assistants that were employed by Arriva transferred to Stantons of Stoke with the work. Drivers assisted with the move to premises in Burslem on a Saturday to ensure readiness for service on the following Monday.
“My business model has been to not have too many eggs in one basket, but with 26 out of 28 vehicles on SEN work that was not the case to start with. At Wardle I had seen rates start to slide a little as other operators showed an interest.”
The two coaches formed a base for expansion into that sector. Help from a pair of other trusted nearby operators, both of which remain within the industry, was received. Those relationships have remained strong as the Stantons coach fleet has grown. A move into bus work now occupies a small number of Optare Solos.
Those steps, combined with a retention of SEN work, have given Stantons a balanced fleet. It will also allow adaptation to future changes, and that has further been accommodated with a depot move.
After growth started Stantons was based on two sites. Although relatively close to each other, that proved difficult to manage. The fleet is now located in Endon, close to the Staffordshire Moorlands, and unused space there gives potential to grow.
Coaching foundations: Like Ronseal
Where the largest increase in work has come is in the coaching sector. That has largely been via contracts, but private hire is ticking over well. A variety of largely Setra and Van Hool coaches are employed.
Most of them carry Stantons’ silver- or white-based livery. But two of the Van Hools are red. They have been upseated to 70 and the different colour is to differentiate them from the mainstream fleet. Even so, coach operation for Stantons is not a complicated thing, says Keith.
“I view it as something like Ronseal. When tendering, the operator must ensure that the contract is sustainable and deliverable. But from then onwards the customer needs to know no more than the coach will turn up when it is supposed to and take them to where they are going with no fuss.”
That’s not to say that growth has come easily. Recruiting drivers can be challenging. But Keith believes that building a coach arm is like building a house.
“It must have good foundations, and for us that is our contract work.”
Sourcing engineers can also be tricky, but those that Stantons has ensure that things are looked after. While its fleet is not full of brand-new vehicles, results at the MoT test station show that things are kept on top of. 58 vehicles have been presented for test so far in 2019. All passed first time.
Putting in community service
Besides its core work Stantons is also active in the local community. A heritage open-top double-decker has been used to promote the business at events, including those related to charitable causes, and various sponsorships have been taken out.
“We don’t spend a fortune promoting ourselves via conventional means, but our work with local charities and sports teams is a way of supporting the community,” says Keith.
As an example, Keith’s love of rugby sees Stantons sponsor two players at Sale Sharks RUFC. That gets it signed shirts. They are then donated to organisations locally to raffle as part of their fundraising efforts.
Work supporting local good causes will continue. The open-topper, blessed with a replacement engine, will return to prominence in 2020 and a recently purchased early Van Hool-bodied Volvo B10M is set to be restored and painted in the black, red and yellow livery of BC Travel as a fleet ‘pet’.
On succession, one of Keith’s daughters, Beccy, works in the business. From founding it has always been his intention to hand it over to a future generation.
Even after just a few years in business, Stantons has grown way beyond what it was at formation. All the vehicles purchased from Arriva have been replaced, and the operation is well at home at its Endon base.
What’s the secret to that success? Not to over-complicate things, says Keith.
An early lesson was learned with a very long tri-axle coach, and the standing policy now is to avoid anything much over 13m in length. “That was a bad experience, but it taught me something.
“Simple doesn’t often go wrong.”
