Mere hours of 2026 had passed before the year’s first change of ownership for a coach operator when Selwyns Travel Group bought Eavesway Travel on 1 January.
Selwyns is no stranger to buy and sell, having completed its first acquisition in 1979. But amid interest in such deals and predictions that more are inevitable, Selwyn Jones notes that family-owned coach operators have a strong future.
That is difficult to argue with. Purchases by large groups are often built on contracted revenue and/or geographic cohesion with existing operations.
Not every SME business will fit a corporate structure. It could be the case that the vast majority would not. Pride in family ownership is one reason, but the work done by some parts of the sector is so complex and individual that it needs to be seen to be believed.
Succession planning and the purchase of one SME by another notwithstanding, left is a theory – as made by Selwyn Jones – that the independent coach operator should not look at consolidation as an inevitable for its business or the industry.
More will no doubt join groups this year. But a reasonable guess holds that between 2,500 and 4,000 coach operators exist in the UK. Nobody knows the real number, but there are a lot.
Based on the number of deals done in 2025, it would take anything up to 300 years for all of those to be ‘consolidated’. A weather eye on affairs is one thing. Celebrating the future of a strong, buoyant and independent coach industry is something much more.
