Commencing with two coaches supplied by Scania (Great Britain) Limited's Worksop-based bus and coach team, Wren Kitchens will operate regular staff transfer services between its Barton-upon-Humber headquarters and the nearby city of Hull, covering four-shift changes seven days a week.
"Wren Kitchens has enjoyed rapid and sustained growth over a relatively short time frame – and with success comes responsibility," comments Lee Thompson-Halls, Wren Kitchens national fleet manager."With nearly 2,000 employees at our headquarters, coaching was an obvious answer to not only further improve our green credentials, but to also create a significant cost saving benefit for our employees in terms of transport to and from work.
"While we operate a major in-house logistical operation with a fleet of over 200 vehicles and seven transport depots across the UK, coaching was an entirely new pursuit for us. A call to the Scania Bus and Coach team started the ball rolling. As we were looking at a low annual mileage of 25,000km per vehicle, a new coach would not have been cost-effective for us. Together we identified exactly the type of vehicle which would serve our needs best and Scania supported us with transforming the vehicles to our top-spec with a new Wren branded livery and retrimming of the seats.
"There was an additional advantage for us in that we have an existing relationship with Scania Hull. The trucks it maintains for us are set up on its r2c workshop management platform and our coaches could be connected to the same system. We saw this as a major benefit as our transport team are already familiar with r2c."
The two coaches Wren Kitchens have opted for are a Scania Omni Express based on a K 400 chassis and a Scania Berkhof Axial based on a Scania K 340 chassis.Both vehicles are equipped with 63 leather-trimmed seats and have full onboard entertainment systems.
"We are now looking forward to putting these vehicles into operation," says Lee Thompson-Halls."In addition to the staff transfer services they will provide, our intention is to also offer them for occasional use by local schools on a complimentary basis, as giving something back to the communities is important to Wren.”