Shearings (legally Shearings Travel Limited) is a coach tour operator, part of the Leger Shearings Group, based in the United Kingdom. The tour operator brand specialises in holidays including escorted tours, unescorted tours, short breaks, self-drive holidays and river cruises throughout the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Ireland and Continental Europe.
Founded in 1919, in Oldham, Greater Manchester by Herbert Shearing, the brand has been transferred between various owners in the late 20th century. Shearings bought Smiths Happiways in 1984, which can be traced back to 1903.
From 2014, Shearings Holidays was owned by Lone Star Funds-backed Specialist Leisure Group, until the group collapsed into administration during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. In June 2020, Leger Holidays announced their purchase of the Shearings brand, website, and customer database, but all other Shearings assets were not purchased at the time.
Current brand operations
The brand operates tours to various destinations throughout the British Isles and Continental Europe.
History
Prior to Leger's purchase in 2020, Shearings was an amalgamation of four separate companies: Smiths Happiways, Shearings, National Holidays and Wallace Arnold. It now operates as a travel brand of the Leger Shearings Group alongside Leger Holidays, Battlefield Tours and Holt Tours.
Origins
Shearings, which was founded in 1919, merged with Smiths Happiways in 1984, which can trace its history back to 1903.
Smiths Happiways
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.
The first tours to Continental Europe were offered in 1938, continuing up until the outbreak of World War II. Smiths claimed to be the first company to operate coach tours to Europe after the war, with a sell-out 14-day tour to Switzerland in May 1946. In 1947, the company carried 6,000 passengers, of which more than 10% travelled to mainland Europe.
In 1958, Smiths was purchased by Les Gleave, and renamed Smith's Tours (Wigan). Wilf Blundell of Southport purchased Smith's Tours from Gleave in 1964.
Blundell began his coach operation with just one coach in 1950, later purchasing Blundells Coaches (Southport) Limited in 1952, Enterprise Coaches in 1955, Poole's Coaches in 1958 and Tootle's Tours in 1960. This portfolio of companies formed Blundell Holiday Group.
Blundell purchased Spencer's Tours and Happiway Tours from Edwin Holden in 1968, merging both companies to form Happiway-Spencers. By 1975 Blundell's coaches were branded as Smiths Happiway-Spencers, and in 1980 the company Smiths Happiway-Spencers was formed, consolidating Blundell's coach operations.
The Blundell Group including Smiths Happiways-Spencers was in turn acquired in March 1982 by Associated Leisure Limited, after which the Spencer name was dropped with the company becoming Smiths Happiways.
Shearings
Shearings was founded in 1919 in Oldham by Herbert Shearing, who then took over Eniway Motor Tours in 1935, a company offering express coach transport between Manchester and London. On Herbert Shearing's retirement in 1949 two new companies were formed: Shearings Tours (Manchester) Limited and Shearings Tours (Oldham) Limited, which were sold to James Robinson, then owner of Happiway Tours in 1953.
Robinson sold Happiway Tours to Edwin Holden, who owned Spencers Tours in 1957, but kept the Shearings Tours companies, consolidating them as Shearings Holidays in 1963, before selling the company to the Jackson family of Altrincham in 1964. Jackson had purchased Pleasureways in 1955. Following an agreement to share resources and pick-up points with Ribblesdale of Blackburn, the coaches were branded as Shearings-Pleasureways-Ribblesdale, shortened to Shearings Ribblesdale in 1979 and then to Shearings Holidays in 1982.
Associated Leisure (who had acquired The Blundell Group including Smiths Happiways-Spencers in 1982) purchased Shearings Holidays in January 1984. Associated Leisure was in turn bought by Pleasurama in 1987, after which Pleasurama's coaches were first rebranded and then formally merged as Smiths Shearings.