Coachtraders

Brian and Gordon

So who are the men behind Coachtraders? Both are partners in Coachtraders neither outranking the other and they share the work equally. Brian as I have mentioned is the son of Harry Ferguson so his whole life has centred around operating vehicles. When he left school he joined the family business. He already had a lot of experience of working on vehicles and he was put through an apprenticeship on vehicle maintenance. Apart from operating the vehicle fleet, these days called Ferguson Traveline, the company had always had a thriving vehicle maintenance business, these days called Ferguson Fleetcare. Brian also learned selling skills through helping his father with selling vehicles off their fleet and bringing new ones in and naturally that also included trading vehicles for friends. When Harry decided to import the KVC product it was a natural progression to put Brian in charge of that operation. It soon became apparent that Brian could not do it on his own so he turned to his long time school friend Gordon Roberston and persuaded him to join him.

When Gordon had left school he had joined a company specialising in grass maintenance equipment and so had had a thorough grounding in equipment maintenance, he had also studied business management at college. But Gordon also had another passion – music! He had established himself as a very popular DJ in his local area and so good was he at it that he took it up professionally and went on to run the business. He took some prising away but Brian was eventually successful and the two set about establishing the Unvi product in Scotland and the North of England.

That they were good at what they did can be gauged from the fact that the vast majority of their customers have stayed with them throughout the upheavals and many Scottish operations have built their own successful businesses on the back of the Unvi product.

The team had a philosophy from day one and they have never deviated from that. Gordon again, ‘We wanted to become partners with our customers. We have never seen selling the initial vehicle as the be all and end all. We believe in giving our customers total support with the product. We won’t just supply it and then walk away. Everyone hits problems when operating vehicles, it is the nature of the beast – our job is to try our very best to minimise or overcome those problems quickly and we will always go that extra mile to help if we possibly can.’

Typical of that attention is the care they take when vehicles are being produced. They monitor carefully the build programme and before the vehicle leaves Unvi’s factories at Ourense in Spain or Oporto in Portugal it will be thoroughly checked by Coachtraders own people and it will even be brought from Spain to the UK by their own staff. Brian explains, ‘It is no good getting the vehicle back to the UK and then finding it has problems, you can’t nip back down the road to the factory. Better to make sure it is right before it leaves.’

The new premises

Coachtraders new premises are at the western end of Whitburn close to the M8 motorway thanks to a new junction, 4A, which has just been opened. Built on the Norwood Industrial Estate at the back of the town it consists of a modern industrial unit with a good area of hard standing all secured behind security fencing. The unit provides undercover protection for up to five minicoaches whilst outside they can park a dozen or so other vehicles. Coachtraders do not handle a lot of used vehicles preferring to dispose of most of them through their brokerage scheme. Within the building they have constructed a two tier office with a large general office, kitchen and storage whilst upstairs there is a comfortable meeting room and additional storage.

Not only have Coachtraders found themselves new premises they have also found a new member of staff. Kerry Waugh is 22 years old and lives in Whitburn. She has joined the team to take over some of the administration work and give the boys more time to deal with their growing client list. Typically the pair they didn’t simply go out and hire someone. Brian again, ‘There are a lot of unemployed youngsters in this area and we wanted to give someone a chance. We dealt with the local authority and they put us in touch with some good candidates. Eventually we whittled it down to Kerry. We needed someone capable of working on their own, that had a genuine desire to learn and develop a career in the business and had a good knowledge and understanding of social media. Though she has only been with us a few days and is still feeling her feet we think she is going to become a valuable member of the team.’ I have to say having talked to her myself for some time, I think Gordon and Brian are right. Isn’t it nice to see youngsters who want to work and learn?

The pair are very passionate about their home town of Whitburn and are always keen to support it. An example is their recent decision to support the local youngsters football team Whitburn Thistle, who have just been kitted out in new ‘Coachtraders’ kit.