This year has without doubt been one of our most exciting, most eventful, and most difficult. It’s been a bit like a tale of two cities, with our Brighton & Bristol operations going through very different experiences.

While in Brighton we struggled with a backlog of electric buses at the manufacturer’s awaiting repair due to a shortage of high-voltage technicians, our Bristol operation grew rapidly. In July following the news that another Bristol bus operator was stopping services overnight, we mobilised three new services in under 12 hours, and then launched six new WESTlocal services in partnership with local community groups and the West of England Combined Authority on the 1st September.

Meanwhile in Brighton, we are delighted to report that following a successful application to Brighton & Hove City Council for funding for extra vehicles for our 47 and 52 services to fill the gaps left by electric buses awaiting repair, these services have very quickly returned to their previously good reliability record. While in September reliability was only 88.2% on service 47 (% mileage driven) and 95% on service 52, in November it was back up to 99.7% on the 47 and 99.0% on the 52.

On Saturday 30 November we had our AGM at The Bevy Community Pub in Brighton, where we shared our financial results from 2023, the year so far (2024), and our plans for 2025.

We started off with a tour of our depot, showing our community of shareholders and bondholders our depot, solar infrastructure, workshops and charging facilities, and then we filled two buses and drove to The Bevy for our meeting and a wonderful lunch. Here we shared the highlights of 2023 and discussed our progress so far in 2024:

• Staff team increased from 74 to 97 (31 Dec 2023 to current)
• Fleet increased from 34 to 48 (31 Dec 2023 to current)
• 96% growth in revenue from £2,556,521 (2022) to £5,004,878 (2023)
• £86,029 net profit for the year 2023 (2022: £95,450)
• Passengers on Brighton & Hove public services up 3.6% from 274,089 (2022) to 284,313 (2023)
• Total carbon savings up from 393 tonnes (2022) to 504 tonnes (2023)

One of our main aims when we launched The Big Lemon in 2007 was to demonstrate that community business works, financially as well as socially. We invited people to invest in the business partly because we didn’t have a lot of money and needed to buy some buses, and partly to keep money in the community by rewarding local shareholders and bondholders with a financial return rather than paying interest to banks.

We were delighted, therefore, that the AGM unanimously approved a dividend of 30% of last year’s surplus, to be shared between shareholders. If you’d like information on becoming a shareholder please email jane@thebiglemon.com.

Plans for 2025

As our organisation grows, we are investing in greater management resource in each depot, alongside a devolution of responsibility to enable more localised decision-making. This is driven by our community values and commitment to engage local stakeholders in decision-making, and the confidence we have in our teams in Brighton, Hailsham and Bristol, as well as our Brighton Horizon Coaches team in Ringmer.

To this end we are delighted to announce that our General Manager, Colin Morris, has accepted the role of Managing Director of The Big Lemon in Bristol, Bath and the West of England, and will be relocating to our Bristol depot in January 2025. In addition, we are recruiting a Managing Director for The Big Lemon in the South East, based in Hailsham, and a General Manager for our business in Brighton & Hove.

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to develop your career in a purpose-driven social enterprise within the bus industry? Send your CV with a covering letter outlining why you are applying for the role and what you will bring to the team, to tom@thebiglemon.com