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Highland bus firm with Ross County FC links finds silver anniversary lining in toughest of years


By Andrew Dixon

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D&E Coaches 25th Anniversary
D&E Coaches 25th Anniversary

A company which grown from being just a minibus to become the region’s largest private hire coach company is celebrating its 25th anniversary this week.

Donald Mathieson and his wife Elizabeth, who is a nurse, originally ran D&E Coaches – taken from their first-name initials – from their Inverness home after Donald’s father gave him £1000 to buy the minibus.

Now based in the Longman Industrial Estate, it has 64 coaches, employs 70 people and has a £5 million turnover.

The road to success has been particularly challenging during the pandemic.

“Our 25th year has been the most stressful one, with Covid-19 wiping out 6000 cruise liner passenger bookings almost overnight,” Mr Mathieson admitted. “Our tourism-related business also vanished.

“We still had care home runs and continued to operate the Inverness-Ullapool Citylink service, while our Highland Council school contracts have been vital.

“It’s been an extraordinary difficult time for our industry, with many coach firms going bust, but it has proved the fundamentals of our own business are right. We’re delighted to be able to sustain jobs, with a number of our drivers being with us for 15-20 years.”

D&E, which is marking its silver anniversary with the launch of a new website, has also acquired or refitted six coaches meeting the latest wheelchair accessibility standards. This follows investment of £3.5 million into the business, including the acquisition of the latest low-emission coaches, in the two years before Covid-19 arrived.

In 2018, it diversified by setting up a premium hire car division, D&E Prestige, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom, for the chauffeur drive, wedding, sports, social and VIP airport transfer market.

It is the regular coach carrier for Ross County FC and Caley Thistle FC and looks forward to Highland Rugby Club being able to resume games soon.

The family business includes daughters Gayle and Amy being operations manager and office manager respectively, while their brother Bryan heads up driver responsibilities.

“It’s been a busy and eventful quarter of a century,” Mr Mathieson added.

“But with the kids back in class, we’re busy delivering our 35 school contracts for Highland Council and virtually all our staff are back from furlough.”

As part of its celebrations, D&E is offering 25 vouchers worth £25 each via social media with them being redeemable at Highland businesses, in a bid to help fellow firms.

Read more about transport.


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