A STAFFORD coach firm is “setting its stall out for the future” by investing £2.5m in a new state-of-the-art headquarters.
Leons Travel is building offices and a garage at Tollgate Park, Beaconside for its 40 workers, complete with a £90,000 MoT testing area for vehicles, after securing planning permission from Stafford Borough Council.
The investment comes after the firm - which provides holidays travel and contracted coaches for day trips and schools - expanded its fleet of vehicles by three to 30 earlier this year.
Despite a challenging period for the holiday industry, director Rob Douglas said the 9,200 sqft development signalled Leons’ intention to continue growing and expanding in spite of some predictions of economic gloom.
“We are striving for the future and these completely new premises will help us move forward in the years to come,” he said.
“We are feeling the pinch at the moment as many people haven’t got the money for holidays because of factors such as gas and petrol prices and we are expecting next year to be quiet.
“However, we are hoping 2013 is going to be great year for us. We already take people on holiday all over the country, picking up from places like Birmingham, and do school journeys in places across the county in places such as Stoke-on- Trent and Lichfield. The new headquarters will help us to build on that.” The firm, which moved into its current base nearby on the same industrial estate in 1997, was started by Rob’s grandfather as a taxi firm following the Second World War in 1945.
