MALCOLM COWTAN meets Alpine Travel managing director Chris Owens, learns how he manages this Llandudno-based family business and hears his thoughts on why it has succeeded in avoiding the fate that has finished off four other prominent North Wales independents in recent years
Alpine Travel has always been a big part of Chris Owens’s life. He grew up with the company founded in 1972 by his parents Bryan and Pat, and for the past 10 years or so he has run it.
Alpine is by any standards a significant operator, with more than 70 vehicles, 100 employees and three operating bases at Llandudno, Llanrwst and Rhyl. This scale has been achieved through steady expansion — by moving with a changing market, trying to do things right, and by acquisition starting from when his parents purchased R. O. Edwards of Llanrwst with a small fleet of Fords.
There followed Hughes Brothers of Llanrwst and Trefriw, the name used for Alpine’s legal entity; Royal Red in 1985; Creams; Regina of Blaenau Ffestiniog; Pentre Motors; Empire Gold Star (which incorporated Gwalia owned for a time by Shearings); Silver Star Holidays; and Jones Holidays. These last two were purchased specifically to get an entry to the tour holiday market.
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