YELLOW Buses lost £2.65million in 15 months – but its boss says it is on course to break even this year.

The company says it has cut costs since its local bosses took over the business in a management buyout in 2019 and has become profitable despite the pandemic.

In the 15-month period ending in March 2020, the Bournemouth-based bus operator made a pre-tax loss of £2.65m, compared with £1.97m for the 12 months of 2018.

Managing director David Squire said: “It’s a big loss but this was a while ago now. We’re about to come to the end of the next financial year which will be a much better result despite everything else.”

Mr Squire was among three local directors who took control of the business in a management buyout from the previous operator RATP in 2019.

Accounts posted at Companies House showed the business lost £1.09m in the last six months of RATP’s ownership but only £1.39m in the first nine months of the new ownership.

Yellow Buses in management buyout

Mr Squire said the new owners had cut costs but had faced bills for replacing “legacy” IT systems and for the costs of the buyout.

“The current financial year ends in three weeks’ time and despite the pandemic, we are going to break even, albeit on a much reduced turnover,” he told the Daily Echo.

"It shows that all the hard work we put in, in the final months of RATP ownership and the six months or so after, have paid off.

"We’ve ended up with a much more profitable business going forward, which gives our staff reassurance and our local stakeholders as well."

Yellows’ £2m loss is ‘disappointing’

The Covid crisis led the government to tell people not to travel on public transport unless vital, and also required bus operators to put social distancing in place. The government awarded grants to bus companies, intended to compensate for the effect of the pandemic.

Mr Squire wrote in his annual report: “A potential upside to Covid is that ‘stay at home’ holidays may become more popular both in 2021 and 2022. The Bournemouth seaside area is particularly well suited to ‘stay at home’ holidays and the company would expect its revenue would benefit in these circumstances.”

He said BCP council had “amended town centre development plans to eliminate car parking, meaning a more pro-public transport message”.

In the year in question, Yellow Buses lost the contract to operate the 035 coach service from Poole to London, after National Express decided to bring the service in-house following its purchase of the coach company Lucketts in Fareham.

Bournemouth Transport employed an average of 352 people in the 15-month period covered by the accounts, compared with 398 in 2018. Of these, 288 staff were “on the road”, compared with 328 before.