Welcome from Carla Stockton-Jones, UK Managing Director.
I’m delighted to be welcoming you to our first newsletter of 2023, and to update you on some of the positive things we have achieved over the past six months since our last bulletin.
It has been another demanding period and we continue to face challenges along with our local authority partners with significantly rising costs, and lower passenger numbers, both of which directly affect the viability of some of our bus services. We are doing all we can to minimise the impact of these factors on our customers and our communities, while continuing to protect and invest in our bus networks around the country.
However, we continue to make good progress towards our goal of making our business more sustainable and contributing to more prosperous communities. Hopefully, you will have had the
chance to see our Sustainability Progress Report, which we issued in autumn and there’s more information on this included on page 5.
While most services are running in line with our timetables, we are aware that in some areas the impact of the UK wide driver shortage is still affecting customers. Our teams are working hard to address this and recruit more drivers, with some depots now fully staffed and able to run their normal services.
As you may be aware, our Chief Executive, Martin Griffiths has decided to retire and our Chief Financial Officer, Ross Paterson has also decided the time is right to move on.
Stagecoach has always been about a team of great people rather than individuals, and I wanted to make sure you were aware of the planned management changes to ensure continuity for the Group, our employees, and the stakeholders we work with.
Ray O’Toole, our current Chair will become Executive Chairman with immediate effect and lead the executive team and Bruce Dingwall, currently Director of Finance, will become Chief Financial Officer from 1 February 2023.
As one of our key stakeholders, your views are very important to us and you should have received an invitation to take part in our annual stakeholder survey. The survey is crucial in helping us to track our performance with stakeholders at a national and
regional level, and in identifying what improvements may be needed.
For the first time this year, we are offering a charity donation, with a £30 donation for each completed survey being donated to one of our four partner charities; Missing People, Trussell Trust, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity or Happy Days – you will be able to select which of these charities you would like to support on the survey.
More can be read here.