The company’s origins go back to 1955 when John Brown was a publican at The Brewery Shades in Crawley. His regulars were the builders of Crawley town and whilst taking some of them to a darts match at another pub he met Ron Barnard of the Barnard & Barnard coach dealership in Sydenham and was persuaded to buy a minibus to undertake the outings.

 

Things developed rapidly with the construction workers based either in Brighton or South London needing transport to Crawley every day for building works so John bought more vehicles for them to drive and within 6 months had given up the pub trade and began Crawley Luxury Coaches with half a dozen motors already.

 

As building work tailed off, new work came from works contracts to the newly erected factories and as a sign of the early success, as soon as 1959 the firm purchased its first brand-new coach, a 41 seat Plaxton.

 

By the mid 1960’s the company had expanded with a fleet of 12 vehicles John sold his house and bought one with a yard next door at Lowfield Heath near Gatwick. As the area’s main coach operator, further brand-new vehicles were acquired over the next few years as the business grew from strength to strength.

 

Unfortunately, less than a decade later in 1972 when the new ring road was built the house and yard were compulsorily purchased to make way for it and the business had to downsize and move to a rented yard near Pease Pottage. It was challenging times for John but with the joining of his son David in 1973 and the majority of their work still in the Crawley area they pressed forwards, renting a few more premises to build the fleet back up again.

 

In 1979, Crawley Luxury bought its first freehold premises, a house and yard as part of the acquisition of the six vehicle fleet belonging to Plumridge Coaches most of which were Bedford VAM’s based in Horley.

 

Although a nice property, the narrow entrance and residential area meant it was occasionally a squeeze. Fitting up to nine vehicles on site, 10 metre Ford’s which were the mainstay of the fleet at the time. Whilst the Ford’s were fantastic work horses they were not ‘motorway coaches’ and in 1981 Crawley Luxury purchased a Plaxton Supreme-bodied Volvo B58 and from that day forth they were convinced by the Volvo brand.

 

In 1986, the site of the present head office on Stephenson Way in Crawley came up for sale and the company has never looked back since. Upon initial purchase, the business extended the workshop building to accommodate the now more common 12 metre bodied coaches.

 

Five years later, with 10 metre vehicles becoming a thing of the past the Horley site became increasingly more difficult to utilise and was instead reduced to an outstation and eventually sold in 1998.

 

During the mid 1990’s the recession hit hard and Crawley Luxury was no exception to the struggles up and down the country. Many of the business served in Crawley for works contracts including Duracell were ceasing and the nine coach operation daily for the factories was reduced to nothing.

 

The business was already operating ski-work, continental tours, its own day excursion program and other private hire work but now the industrial estate had transitioned to a high tech park, with low-rise office buildings and very different transport needs it was time to find new markets to move into.

 

Crawley Luxury then began to concentrate on the school transport market and to this day has never looked back. In 1994 David's eldest son Gavin joined the business and in 1995, Darren concluded school and also joined the business. Initially reluctant to do so, Darren was convinced to come out of the workshop after his apprenticeship and into the office and has not looked back since.

 

The next significant change came in 2002, major expansion with the purchase of Ron’s European which had been trading since the early 1970’s but run into financial difficulties and Crawley Luxury purchased it from the administrators including the current site on the Lancing Business Park.

 

Overnight, Crawley Luxury’s own vehicles were brought to Lancing, work previously booked with Ron’s was operated in their own vehicles and the business had an instant foothold in the south and a base to further expand the market into Worthing, Brighton and the rest of the South Coast for customers that had previously though it too far to bring down a coach from Crawley.

 

To counteract the potential stigma of travelling from too far away, the coaches were branded as CL Coaches to avoid any place recognition and with this idea the business grew from strength to strength in the area until slowly phasing back in the full logo of Crawley Luxury once customers had come to accept the competitive prices regardless of which depot they operated the vehicle from.

 

Whilst the business had primarily been a Volvo fleet, with the changes in legislation and changes in customer expectation moving into newer market required a change for the Crawley Luxury front of house. In 2013, Darren made the decision to split the emphasis of the business between schools and the holiday market and with the increasing movements on cruise ship work with Crawley Luxury becoming a preferential supplier, the business purchased its first Mercedes coach.

 

Maintaining a fondness to Volvo coaches, the business now runs a split fleet with the Volvo coaches primarily working in the education sector whether it be home to school transport, swimming contracts, educational visits or foreign students where the specifications available on the Mercedes brand made them the obvious choice for the long distance work now being more regularly undertaken.

  

Spearheaded by Darren as the Managing Director leading the forty-strong fleet and two depots, able assisted by a strong professional management team and David when is not on holiday, the business is proud to be in its third generation of the family and continues to look for new ways to innovate and improve into the future but will never forget where it came from.

 

Now celebrating its 65th year in 2020, whilst for many this is a very sobering affair with the current Coronavirus Pandemic drastically changing peoples way of life, Crawley Luxury is doing its best to position for the future and to be fair and honest with its customers and staff through these challenging times.

 

It is with this approach that we have made it to 65 and we are working hard to push forwards and hope to be writing another biography when celebrating our centenary.