My Back To Business Strategy

By Matt Barnes, director of Barnes Coaches, one of Swindon's most well known brands celebrating 100 years in business. The company offers both coach hire and holidays.

Summarise how Covid-19 has affected your business? 

In summary this crisis has wiped out almost all of the sectors we operate in. We currently have no incoming or outgoing tourism, no coach holidays, no day trips out, no schools, no sport etc. etc. 

What has been your plan to continue?  

The drivers that have not been furloughed are doing schools runs for key workers plus we are helping Dominos Pizza in Swindon with their increase in delivery needs. 

With our holidays and day trips it has been a case of cancelling and setting up new dates later in 2020 or more often in 2021. We have spent most of our time cancelling and rescheduling. Plus trying to find new sectors to work in.

Due to having drivers available during the day we have also been doing a project called Happy To Help where we have been looking after about 60 local households by getting their food and medical prescriptions for them when they are unable to leave the house.

I can’t thank enough the office staff and drivers who have been organising and delivering this and it really has been worth it to offer this vital community service. 

What measures have you put in place to get back to business?

We have a clear plan about how we will work however we are still waiting for confirmation from the government as to what we can do and when. 

The main things will be lowering passenger numbers on coaches to keep social distancing in place, cleaning after every run and ensuring every driver wears a mask.

What has been the most challenging aspect of all of this? 

The uncertainty of a date when we can get back to offering our services. Plus I have found I have made decisions one day only to find out that the reasons I made that decision have completely changed the following day and I need to change my decisions. Thankfully everyone has dealt with this and kept on smiling! 

What has been the most positive aspect? 

Everyone in the company has realised the seriousness of the situation and all done their own things to help. Also our customers have been amazing and we can’t wait for them to be able to book another holiday or trip with us when we can operate properly again. We have also had good support from Swindon Borough Council and our MP (Justin Tomlinson) has always been available, efficient and helpful. 

Has it made you consider how you feel about other businesses/suppliers/customers/clients for good or otherwise? 

I will certainly remember those who have been good to us through this and support them going forward. And I hope all of our customers will feel the same way about us as we have done all we can to help.

How important is the phrase 'buy local, supply local' to you? 

This crisis has made everyone look closer to home and it has tended to be the local companies that have been the most helpful. So going forward I see this phrase increasing in importance.

What are your top tips for other business owners at this time? 

1. Be flexible. 

2. Be helpful.

3. Try to smile!

How can we buy from you in the coming weeks or months?

Our holidays and day trips will be up and running, slightly differently, when we can operate them again. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for the latest on these. 

Your parting thoughts? 

This has been a tough and scary time for everyone, but we can bounce back by trusting that our local companies are doing everything to keep us safe and be able to get back to some sort of normal. 

So support them which in turn will help keep local jobs in place.

For more information visit www.barnescoaches.co.uk