Tourism boom hire company shuts after half-century

Thursday 25 February 2021

It may have gone unnoticed during the pandemic, but one longstanding island company has pedalled quietly into the sunset after 52 years in business.

Zebra Car and Cycle Hire was the last locally founded hire car company out of more than 30 that serviced Jersey’s flourishing tourism sector in the 70s and 80s.

But as tourism receded in the 90s, Zebra found a new market in hiring bicycles to tourists who wanted to explore the island à velo.

The company quietly shut down at the end of June, when the lease expired on its Esplanade home.

Plans have now been submitted by developer Dandara to demolish most of 8-9 Esplanade and 10-12 Commercial Street to make way for a five-storey office block with parking and, perhaps fittingly, bike storage. 

Pictured: A reservation form from 1977, which shows that you could have hired a Mini for a week for £28 or a 12-seat Transit bus for £50.

The distinctive listed façade at the back, which includes archways still painted black and white, will remain.

Zebra Hire Cars was founded in 1968 by Philip Sturgess and the business moved to the Esplanade in 1975. Last summer, with the lease not being renewed and manager Steve Booth wanting to retire after 47 years with the business, Mr Sturgess thought it was time for the Zebra story to come to an end.

Fortunately, everyone else found a job with Evie Bikes, which is now the main hirer of bicycles in the island.

“I’m 80 now, so I think I’m allowed to retire,” said Mr Sturgess. “At the peak, there were 37 hire car companies in Jersey and now there are just three."

Pictured: Zebra became the go-to place for bicycle hire in Jersey.

“We were very busy in the day and at one time I had more than 30 people working for me, which including my other business Lara Furs, on the corner of Halkett Street and Halkett Place," he recalled.

“We had 140 cars in our fleet at one stage, and only in the latter years did bicycles become more important. We had 300 bikes, including electric bikes, and I remember on one particular day we hired out 160 to a single French group.

“We delivered them all in multiple journeys to Corbière, the group cycled them across the bay to L’Etacq, and then we had to pick them all up again.”

Mr Sturgess, who was the island’s Swedish Consul for 23 years, the Chairman of Headway for more than ten years and Vice-Chairman of the IoD, arrived in Jersey in 1961. His first job was working for Jimmy Webster, who then ran a dive shop in town before moving it to First Tower.

Pictured: Philip Sturgess (80) founded Zebra Hire Cars in 1968.

Mr Sturgess then joined Tug Wilson at Holiday Hire Cars as a manager before leaving to set up Zebra. The company had two business names – Aardvark Hire Cars and Zebra Hire Cars – so it captured both ends of the phonebook.

As well as hiring cars, Zebra also sold them, and at various times held the franchises for Saab, Mazda, MV Agusta, Wartburg and Perodua. 

Mr Sturgess said he was sure that tourism would survive in some form, although he doubted it would ever return to the peak of the 70s and 80s. 

“Everything comes and goes; that’s how it is,” he said.

“I still see former colleagues in town from time to time and it’s always lovely to see them and find out what they are doing now. It was a great team, full of personalities who worked extremely hard.”