As we slowly tick close to our 20 year anniversary, I am being reminded how far we have come.
From our humble beginning’s in Milton Common, to our workshop in Haddenham and then the move to our new HQ in Long Crendon, alongside our other 2 regional branches – its been quite a ride over the past 20 years!
I remember our fleet when we first started out. Hiring out old Toyota Corolla’s, Vauxhall Corsa’s and the like. We had to advertise in the Yellow Pages to get business. Yes, this was pre Google! We didn’t even have a website anyway at that point.
When we opened our 2nd branch in Aylesbury it was quite a gamble. Competing against the likes of Enterprise, Europcar and Thrifty for the first time. I will be honest, I was nervous. Little did I know that being so close to the big and often faceless multi national companies actually did us a favour.
In fact, I often talk to independent rental companies like ours and its obvious how much we all care about our customers and can provide the one thing the bigger more well known companies all struggle with – good old fashioned customer service. It’s not their fault. They are a victim of their own success. When you get that big its hard to keep the same relationships with your clients.
Having survived the credit crunch and subsequent recession, we found our feet and just a couple of years after Aylesbury opened we were preparing to open the doors in Wycombe. In fact, just a week before the first lockdown! Scary times for us all.
The jubilee events over the last week have made me a little reflective, hence this blog. It genuinely feels like the pandemic is behind us now and we can all look forward again to brighter days.
With a busy fleet of 130 vehicles and a staff of 13 now, we are by far the biggest we have ever been. And whilst the current problems in the economy are cause for all of us to be cautious, I can’t help but feel that we will overcome them the way we always do.
So as we approach our very own little Jubilee, we are pretty happy with how far we have come and what the next 20 years may have in store.
