15 years since 21-year-old set up successful Warwickshire coach company
FIFTEEN years ago, a 21-year-old bus driver bought a coach with the dream of starting his own business. Fast forward to now and Jordan Ridley is the proud owner of 50 coaches and employs 100 people.
And despite the pandemic and cost of living crisis, the Ridleys Bus Company is flourishing.
Jordan and his wife Becca, who is the operations director, have just invested almost £2.5 million to buy six new luxury coaches, each costing a cool £400,000.
Thanks to a contract with national coach holiday company Shearings, Ridleys’ drivers chauffeur holiday-makers all over the UK and Europe – from Austria for skiing jaunts to three-week tours of Eastern Europe taking in the likes of Albania, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. And there are trips to Christmas markets in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
Ridleys, known in Stratford for taking children to and from school and on school trips, unexpectedly ramped up its school run operations in August last year, after the Green Bus Company announced it was axing its school bus services.
Becca was flooded with emails and calls from 400 anxious parents, wondering how their kids were going to get to school.
She recalled: “When it all kicked off, we were on our way to a Robbie Williams concert in Sandringham.
“Jordy was driving and I was sitting next to him, hooked up to my laptop and trying to answer all the queries – it was crazy.”
They managed to create 250 extra seats by providing larger buses, adding stops to existing routes and starting new ones.
Drivers who join the company are often surprised to see their managing director covered in engine oil and cleaning buses, but Jordan is a hands-on boss.
He started cleaning buses for Southam-based Catteralls Coaches as a 16-year-old and by 18, was driving them. When his 21st birthday arrived, he was already a seasoned driver who’d completed European tours and was ready to buy ‘Lottie’, his first coach, and set up Ridleys.
“She’s the original, Jordan’s pride and joy and he’ll never part with her,” Becca pointed out.
“He’s thrown a lot of money at that 20-year-old coach and won’t let many others drive her.”
She added: “Jordan’s never happier than when he’s in the garage, up to his elbows in grease – he’d be in there all the time if he could.”
Looking back over the past 15 years, Becca says the first Covid lockdown in 2020 was the toughest time – with all schools shut and no tours, the coach company had to lock it gates and put staff into furlough from March to May.
“We kept asking each other, ‘are we going to make it through?’” Becca recalled.
They were ‘saved’ by a contract to transport Amazon staff to work from Coventry city centre, until schools reopened in September.
Conversely, their proudest moment was in 2015 when they put in an order for their first brand new coach, which they named ‘Alfie’ after their son who was born that year. The couple, who met when they were 16, were best friends for eight years before hooking up and marrying in 2013 and as well as Alfie they have also have a seven-year-old daughter, Saffron.
Historically, coach drivers have tended to be older, as training costs £3,000 and can be a barrier to many younger people. This prompted Jordan, 36, and Becca, 38, to recently open their own in-house training academy at Ridleys’ base in Warwick.
Training is free but once drivers pass their test, they’re tied into staying at Ridleys for two years – if they leave before, they’re asked to pay back a percentage of the cost.
The result has been a more diverse team with the youngest 21 years old and the oldest in their late 60s.
Four of the drivers have been with the company for 11 years and were at the couple’s wedding.
“They’ve known us and the kids since the beginning and that’s very special,” Becca explained.
“When you come here you are part of our family and that’s something I never want to lose.”