Focus Vehicle Rental celebrates 20 years of vehicle hire
Sponsored Editorial with Focus Vehicle Rental
Ask any small business what their most prominent memory is of the past few years and the answer is undoubtedly covid. Local, family run business Focus Vehicle Rental is no different.
“We’re delighted to have made it to twenty years” said Ali Davidson, who along with his wife Wendy own and oversee the business based in Seafield Road.
“It was more than a little distressing to see almost your whole fleet returned overnight. We had vehicles parked everywhere! We were extremely lucky to be able to remain open on a restricted basis, otherwise I’m not sure we’d still be here.”
Starting in 2004 the ambition was to ‘focus’ on customer service, providing vehicle rental with no hidden charges and concentrating on local customers.
Setting up in a portacabin on Shore Street with just three vehicles for hire was a risky move, but over the last twenty years the business has grown to a varied fleet of 250 vehicles with a loyal base of both private customers and commercial businesses.
Alongside Ali and Wendy is their general manager, John Edgar who has been with the business for almost 10 years.
With a vast amount of vehicle hire experience the day to day running falls to him and his small team of staff and whilst fleet numbers have increased the team has actually become smaller.
Ali and Wendy recognise that one of the biggest changes to their business over the last 20 years is that most of the bookings now come through their website, rather than in the office or by phone.
Ali said: “We’ve tried to make the website as user friendly as possible, regularly updating it with photos of the actual vehicles we have on fleet.”
Focus has dabbled in a variety of different hire options over the years including motorhomes, limousines and at one point fancy dress outfits.
People still phone to ask if they have any costumes, which can come as a bit of a surprise to newer staff who weren’t there for the fancy dress years!
Now the team concentrate on their core business with a vast choice of vehicles ranging from commercial vehicles such as vans and tippers, alongside small, medium and luxury vehicles.
Electric vehicles are also available with Ali recognising this will be the biggest change over the next 20 years, predicting that sometime in the not so distant future all their vehicles will be battery powered.
He said: “We’re looking ahead and have our eyes firmly focused on the future. I think electric and hydrogen are the future. For us more and more we have commercial work with a lot of windfarm work.
“I think the next 20 years is much of the same on the commercial side but electric cars will change the game.
We are trying to educate people that electricity is now the fuel and to make sure that cars are charged up.”
When the business celebrated their 10 year anniversary it embarked on a year of events with Team Focus - a group made up of staff, friends and family - to raise money for Highland Hospice and Marie Curie but are still a little undecided on how to celebrate twenty years.
Ali jokes that some of the members of the team are not as young as they used to be.
“It’ll maybe have to be coffee mornings and cake bakes rather than cycle events and 10K runs!”
