Adopting a new strapline, Driving Excellence, the premium operator was historically a specialist in financial roadshows but has made major inroads in the events and corporate markets.
“In 2008, when the financial crisis hit, 90% of our business was in financial roadshows – now it’s around 35%,” explains Group CEO Craig Chambers.
“The growth we’ve seen has been a mixture of geographical growth but service lines too. It’s been in events, major events – such as the Olympics and World Cup – and corporate business both direct and through TMCs.
“Corporate business is the newest of our service lines – only five years old – but we’ve had double-digit growth year-on-year.”
The company spent nine months conducting research internally, with customers and with companies who had not previously used TBR.
“There was a challenge around brand awareness – who we are and our positioning,” says Chambers. “We were very much thought of as a financial roadshows specialist still, so we have to raise awareness of what else we do, our premium position and the value we bring.”
Chambers says its corporate business is predominantly ‘standard movements’ between airports, offices and homes, but that passengers are mainly c-suite executives.
The company, which works with operators globally, has also partnered with Carbon Footprint to offset all emissions from its vehicle operations around the world.
“We’re having more informal conversations about sustainability with our customers but we’re also seeing the importance of it in the RFP process,” says Chambers.
“We get a number of requests around more environmentally vehicles and we continue to monitor the fleet we have access to.”
Chambers continues: “We’re very proactive in our approach and we’ll be ahead of the curve in meeting demand. But at the moment the level of requests are on the low side, although they’re above average in Europe.”
In the meantime, TBR is facing a “real short-term challenge” due to the spread of coronavirus.
“The year ahead was looking very strong, especially around major sporting events, but everyone in the industry is in the same position now,” says Chambers. “We’re hopeful that it passes as soon as possible.”
