Shearings sales on track amid £7m coach deal

COACH tour and holiday operator Shearings Group, has boosted its fleet with 30 new coaches in a £7m deal and reported encouraging sales figures.

The Wigan company has invested in the Setra vehicles to support growth in its National Holidays and Shearings Holidays divisions.

Setra is part of German automotive group Daimler and now has supplied Shearings with more than 160 new coaches sincen early 2009.

The latest deal has been funded through a new leasing agreement with Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, another Daimler company.

Shearings, which focuses on holidays and hotel breaks for the rapidly-expanding over 50s market, reported a 3.5% rise in annual sales to £193.7m in 2011.

The company says like-for-like revenues and profits in the first nine months of 2012 are ahead of last year, with particularly strong growth from its value brand National Holidays and improved profitability from its Shearings Holidays brand.

So far this year it has sold holidays to more than 1 million customers – a new record. Top performing products include Shearings Floriade and Keukenhof tours, river cruise itineraries across Europe, Showtime entertainment breaks from National Holidays and self-drive breaks to Coast & Country hotels.

Chief executive Denis Wormwell said: “Despite challenging market conditions, we’re continuing to grow our customer base thanks to the quality of our product, our value for money proposition and the loyalty of our existing customer base.

“This latest deal with Setra demonstrates both our commitment to invest in the business and the confidence we have in our forward growth.”

As well as its coach tours, the group also operates a 50-strong hotel portfolio under the Bay and Coast & Country brands.