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Top of the class

WA’s Adams Coachlines keeps moving from strength to strength, picking up another award, and launching a new coach company brand

By David Goeldner | November 29, 2010

More kudos for Adams Coachlines with the Perth-based operator taking out another major honour, this time at the WA Tourism Council’s annual awards.

Adams Coachlines edged out Veolia’s South West Coach Lines to win WA’s Major Tour and Transport Operators gold medal award, having won the ABCUA Achiever of the Year award at the BIC National Conference in Sydney a few week’s earlier.

Adams Coachlines Managing Director Adam Barnard says he was pleased to have won two awards inside a month, and has dedicated the more recent win to his staff.

“I’ve dedicated the award to the staff and what they have achieved,” says Barnard.

“We were pretty happy to win our category.”

Barnard says his team was up against tough competition from Veolia, and paid tribute to his competitor.

“Veolia’s South West Coach Lines has launched a few new products and vehicles, and have proved to be very innovative.”

But Barnard believes Adams Coachlines’ strengthening ties to tourism in Western Australia proved the difference, and the acknowledgement of their leading role caps off a successful 2010.

“We won Silver in the WA tourism awards last year, and it was a good stepping stone for us to get more involved in the industry,” he says.

“In the past year I’m now a committee member of the Australian Tourism Export Council.”

Barnard’s emerging success, backed by industry-wide acceptance of the Adams brand, has provided the opportunity to announce a new division of Adams Coachlines – Adams Gold Class.

The Gold Class fleet will commence in place of Swan Gold Tours which will cease operating on December 31.

Barnard says the decision to wind down Swan Gold Tours had been tossed around for some time.

The decision – in part – gets down to the colour of the buses, with Adams Coachline’s distinctive blue, and Gold Class high visibility white suited to their respective market sectors.

Barnard says the Adams brand is now so recognized in WA through its blue colours that he believes it would be easier to run one brand name than two, with an offshoot of Adams in white livery as a premium product.

The white Gold Class livery meets a requirement of mine site operations which specifies all buses must be white.

The mining, oil and gas sector is where Barnard will pitch his new brand.

“Adams Coachlines Gold Class is a specific product targeted towards corporate activity in Western Australia,” he says.

“Nothing will really change except for the name and the vehicles simply rebranded.”

He says the switch provides for marketing under one brand name rather than under two separate entities – Swan Gold Tours and Adams Coachlines.

Barnard admits that many of his clients migrated from Swan Gold Tours to Adams Coachlines during the GFC in part due to the slightly lower price point of Adams, and now with the economy improving Adams clients can be upgraded to Gold Class, particularly those associated with the corporate sector and mining.

“We will have a lot of involvement in the mining sector, whether it’s directly transporting miners, the corporate activity in the mining industry, through to extended tours,” says Barnard.

“Most businesses in WA are going to have some involvement in the mining industry, and we have specifically chosen to stick to what we do best which is the corporate side of mining.”

In preparation for the official Gold Class launch, Barnard has acquired a near new BCI from Smith’s Travel in Tasmania to add to the fleet.

All vehicles in Gold Class will be 2-door touring coaches many currently being refurbished and moved across from Swan Gold Tours, plus a few new additions.

Also coming up at Adams Coachlines is the impending move to a new 22,000 square metre depot at Malaga in Perth’s north, due for completion at the end of January.

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