Jonathan Welch continues his chat with YouTube star Pete Sonneveld about his bar bus business and some of the other opportunities which have arisen from his unusual venture
In last week’s issue, we started speaking to the star of YouTube channel Pete And his Bus about his bar bus business, which he started a decade ago. Having converted one Routemaster into a successful business venture, Pete is well underway with his second conversion, as documented in his monthly videos. We left off speaking about some of the successes, but the bar bus has not been Pete’s only source of success.
On the road with Racoon
As viewers of his channel will have seen, Pete has diversified into other bus-related event activities alongside his own Routemasters. “I did a deal to sell a bus to PR company Racoon,” he explained. “They were looking for a bus, but struggling to buy one for commercial use. I sold them RM 2634 which belonged to a friend. Their Managing Director came to see me, and asked ‘so you’re an events manager who drives buses?’
“There are events managers, and there are bus drivers, but there are not many who can do both, so they were impressed. They asked if I’d work with them. Initially I said no, but they kept asking, so I gave them a price and they agreed.
“The first job I did was for the shoe brand Malone Souliers at Covent Garden. It happened to be the same day as a vintage bus running day. When I arrived in Covent Garden with RM 2634, it was full of bus fans wanting to take pictures. I remember one of the Malone Souliers staff saying ‘OMG he’s like, literally, famous’! It was a very successful day.
“I’ve done two tours for clothing brand Shein as well,” Pete added, “which is quite a controversial company. They’ve made significant efforts to clean up their act, though, and want to retain their market share. That was interesting to deal with.”
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