Ayr Coach leaves schools behind, expands tour and charter business

School buses are like graduation memories — most operators, if they have them, hold onto them forever. But when Ayr Coach saw an opportunity to sell its school bus fleet and expand its tour and charter coach business, the 42-year-old company held its breath and made the leap.

Since that day in 2005, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company has doubled its fleet of motor coaches — two new MCI® J4500s delivered in May bring the fleet to 25 — and made a big move into the U.S. market by opening a facility in Buffalo, New York. In short, it's been going well.

"The change allowed our key people to focus more on the motor coach business," says Dave Willis, president, who runs the company with his brother, Alan, and his sister, Ruth Rivers. Willis says the switch came after weighing the potential of both the school and tour-and-charter markets. And when Ayr saw an opportunity to move into Buffalo in 2006, following the departure there of Coach USA, Ayr's tour-and-charter future started looking especially bright.

Then again, Ayr has always been about growth. The company was founded in the town of Ayr in 1965 by Mel and Marion Willis, parents to Dave, Alan and Ruth. Ayr's first vehicle was a single station wagon that the couple put to work transporting workers to local hospitals — one of which also employed Marion as a nurse.

It wasn't long before Ayr Coach picked up school contracts, moved its operations from the town of Ayr to nearby Cambridge and added to its fleet, eventually acquiring some 100 school buses. Somewhere along the line, Mel Willis coined the company's slogan, "Miles of Smiles," which the company still uses proudly. In 1985, after son Dave Willis joined the company, Ayr moved more seriously into the tour and charter business.

Today, even with offices on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border, Ayr maintains strong ties with the Ontario community. Dave Willis is the 2007 chairman of the Ontario Motor Coach Association, where he has been addressing causes such as environmentalism and passenger safety.

Closer to home, Willis says it is the people that make Ayr the success it is. The company today has about 50 employees, and it's a tight-knit group. "We're not big on titles here," says Willis. Employees tend to pitch in as needed, and everyone in the office is licensed to drive coaches — except for a new sales representative who, says Dave Willis, is "keen to learn." And every Friday, the office team gets together for lunch. Their regular guests of honor, Mel and Marion Willis, remind them of where the company has come from — and the values that continue to make the company work.

To learn more about Ayr Coach, visit www.ayrcoach.com.

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