Shearings

Shearings

Setra S416GT in August 2011
Parent	Lone Star Funds
Founded	1919
Headquarters	Wigan
Service type	Coach holidays, escorted tours etc
Fleet	240 (April 2016)
Chief executive	Richard Calvert
Website	www.shearings.com

Shearings is Europe’s largest coach tour operator, specialising in holidays for the over-55s including escorted tours, short breaks, river cruises and ocean cruises. The company’s head office is in Wigan, with its hotel division's headquarters in Torquay.

Shearings comprises Shearings Holidays, Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels, value brand National Holidays, Scottish tour operator Caledonian Holidays and Wallace Arnold Travel.

Shearings’ Hotels division is based in Torquay. As at October 2013, Shearings owns 49 properties across England, Scotland and Wales operated under the Bay Hotels and Coast & Country brands.

Bay Hotels are focused around the communal holiday experience, often with cabaret entertainment. Coast & Country have all been upgraded to at least three-star standard, and offer a more relaxed atmosphere, often with additional facilities such as swimming pools, saunas, fitness rooms and jacuzzis. Shearings also work with a wide variety of hoteliers across the UK and Europe, from small family-run hotels to large chains. The company has a particularly close relationship with the Hotel Britannia Excelsior in Lake Como, with whom Shearings has worked for many years. Shearings offers all-inclusive holidays into this hotel all year round.

Over the past few years, Shearings has grown its river cruise programme. As of 2013, the company exclusively charters five river cruise vessels: the MPS Rotterdam, the MPS Da Vinci, the MV Virginia, the MV Esmeralda and the MS Alegria. Shearings also sells onto other operators' river cruises.

In its present form, Shearings is an amalgamation of four separate companies: Smiths Happiways, Shearings, National Holidays and Wallace Arnold.

Shearings, which was founded in 1919, merged with Smiths Happiways in 1984, which can trace its history back to 1903.

In 1903 William Webster commenced trading as a haulage and removals contractor and passenger carrier, offering coach transport, and by 1931, Webster Bros (Wigan) offered excursions and tours to North Wales and Manchester.

In 1914, James Smith began operating coach tours from Wigan and Southport. The first tour was to John O’Groats. Webster Bros purchased James Smith's coach business in 1931, and a new company, James Smith & Co (Wigan) Limited, was formed. By 1935, Webster Bros (Wigan) marketed 'Webster’s Tours', operated by James Smith & Co.