Earlier this month the full accounts for Stagecoach Devon were released on the Companies House web site
Stagecoach Devon Limited is a public transport operator, operating predominantly local bus services in Devon. The
Company also operates the Falcon coach service providing connections to Bristol city centre and the airport. The
Company operates a fleet of 432 (2019:430) buses and employs 1,247 (2019: 1 ,230) people.
Results and performance
The results of the Company for the period ended 02 May 2020 show a profit on ordinary activities before taxation of
£1,058,000 (2019 loss: £345,000) and revenue of £55,841,000 (2019: £56,279,000)
The Company's business is built on a commercial formula of low fares, investment and high customer service which
has maintained our presence in the region, however, the Company has been adversely impacted by the substantial
fall in passenger demand for public transport in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Future outlook
With the continuing uncertainty of the COVID-19 situation and the UK's recovery, it remains difficult to reliably predict
financial performance for the new financial year ending 1 May 2021. In the short-term, the actions we have taken and
the payments from government for continuing bus services should ensure we continue to generate positive EBITDA
and avoid significant operating losses. As COVID-related restrictions have been relaxed, we have restored services
and our regional bus vehicle mileage is now at around 98% of prior year levels.
Nevertheless, with ongoing physical distancing requirements placing a capacity constraint on our vehicles and
government advice discouraging public transport use in the short-term, government is continuing payments to bus
operators for the increased level of services.
Looking further ahead, we expect a lasting effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel patterns with an acceleration in
trends of increased working from home, shopping from home, telemedicine and home education. We anticipate that it
will be some time before demand for our regional bus services returns to pre-COVID levels and we are planning for a
number of scenarios. We are continuing to review our cost base, to reduce overheads and plan for adjustments to
direct and semi-direct costs across a range of scenarios. At the same time, we see positive drivers for the business
from a renewed societal focus on health, wellbeing and the environment. Buses across the UK can play a major role
in a cleaner, greener and more resilient economy and society, tackling climate change with strong government action
to reduce car use
The full document can be viewed from my Library document here
Where do they go from here?
This is a question I will be asking for the three main companies over the next week or so. These are my thoughts but please feel free to join in and add your comments!
There has been a lot of chatter over the last few months with many confidently predicting that Stagecoach would be leaving Plymouth with First South west set to come back and take over The Ride. I genuinely have no idea if this is true or not. It is quite possible that this was planned but plans have been put on hold due to lockdown in which case who knows if plans have changed?
At the time of the original takeover of Plymouths operations by Stagecoach it seemed pretty clear that one of the big advantages for Stagecoach was The Ride – with plenty of room when some of their other depots were very short of space. The setting up of The Ride as a major base for Megabus as well as the successful Falcon service seemed to bode well for Plymouth. However the Megabus side of things didn't stay here for long. Although I would stop short of saying they clearly wanted out of Plymouth, over the last few years I've often had the feeling that Stagecoach’s heart wasn't really in Plymouth. They did get a most of the City Council tenders a few years ago, only to loose many of them back to Citybus recently. Other than that nothing has changed.
So will First come back into Plymouth in a big way? That's a question I will be looking more into when I take a closer look at First South West shortly. Its easy to see what's in it for Stagecoach if they really do want out? its less clear for me why FSW would want to come back?
Pandemic Recovery
With the ending of at least some of the restrictions in sight over the coming few months all eyes will be on the operators to see how they recover from the lockdown. We don't know much of SCs plans yet but open top services do feature…
In the meantime the new liveries continue to roll out in Plymouth as well as the others areas of Devon. Although the standard livery is very slowly growing on me, the yellow version looks cheap compared to the excellent Stagecoach Gold brand which really did manage to convey a premium service. It seems the group as a whole is turning its back on route specific branding which is a shame. Maybe its time to renumber Gold as X80 or something?
So what do you think the rest of 2021 holds for Stagecoach in Devon? and in particular do their plans include pulling out or staying in Plymouth?
