TIME, CARE AND MONEY
English Holiday Cruises has been a family run business since 2004 with the biggest hotel boat in England, the Edward Elgar, based in Gloucester on the Severn Navigation. They have a business model with many moving parts, to say the least. Richard Clements, co-owner, shares with us what sustainability means in his particular part of the travel, tourism and hospitality sector, whilst ensuring the business is here for generations to come.
DIFFERENT MEANINGS
Sustainability means different things to different people. At English Holiday Cruises, we start with our customers and try to constantly delight our guests with unique holiday cruises. To do this, we know we need happy staff and a luxurious environment. We also appreciate that we need to work constructively with all our stakeholders and manage sales and costs to ensure that profits grow every year. Attending to all of these considerations makes the business more and more successful every year – this, to us, is the meaning of ‘sustainable’.
The hotel boat business model has many moving parts, both inside the business and the wider operating environment. The ‘hotel’ side makes the same demands as any other full-service hospitality business; the ship equipment requires regular maintenance, and the outside environment is constantly changing as the ship sails along the waterway. To make the business sustainable, to function well, to deliver the top-notch service customers deserve and to thrive, there is a system in place to monitor and finetune virtually everything. The management has developed these systems over the years. This level of detail sustains the business and prepares it for future adventures. Our guests constantly ask us to launch a second ship, on the Severn or further afield and that could well be the next adventure because the current ship is always full!
Putting the systems in place is one thing but using them is another. How do you stay on the right course every day? English Holiday Cruises collects and analyses extensive customer feedback to ensure that the ever-growing and evolving demands of guests are met. This is accompanied by investment in the ship, careful selection and training of staff and constant reviews of costs. If the staff are happy, then the guests are too. If the food, beverages and other variables are bought in at the right cost, the cruise package prices can be competitive. Regular reviews really do keep this ship on course.
By definition the role of ‘sustainable business’ is to ensure there is a future for the business. English Holiday Cruises has created an elaborate and dynamic process that invests time, care and money into the business. This creates a lasting product involving people, ships, stakeholders, suppliers and systems. As custodians for the business, the family efforts go into making it last rather than ‘milking’ it now. Tying the past learnings, present operations and longevity together is growing the business for the family. As Richard says, ‘We’re a small, family business and everyone in the company is treated as family. We care for each other, our guests and our ship in a way which often eludes larger operations and ‘chain’ concepts.’
It certainly sounds like this business, like most successful families, will last forever.
Richard is MD but is taking a mostly ‘back seat’ role now, as his son Jay takes over. However, Richard still keeps a close watch over the purse strings and regularly visits his ship to have dinner with the guests and check they are happy.
Wife Judith is Director of Hospitality and originally developed the meal plans and food suppliers, housekeeping arrangements, interior décor and live entertainment. As these matters have now bedded down though, Judith has also released day-to-day management to son Jay.
Jay is Operations Manager, having been closely involved in the business since the family acquired it in 2004. Jay has been variously the youngest boatmaster on the Severn Navigation, the most rapidly qualified marine engineer ever and the company webmaster. He is in charge of the day-to-day operation.