This month (December 2025) sees the 50th anniversary of St Helens-based David Ogden Holidays. The entrepreneurial skills displayed by founder David Ogden, supported by his wife Joan, have set a firm foundation on which family succession planning for a strong future is being built.
Being an entrepreneur comes in many forms. For David Ogden, a well-known coach and bus industry figure, the description can be applied on more than one occasion across a career that began in 1969, age 21, driving coaches part-time for St Helens Industrial Co-operative Society.
“My father was looking to retire after running a successful grocery business with multiple shops,” recalls David. “There was an expectation that my career would follow in that direction. But I remember thinking I needed to look around for a change of direction. I found I enjoyed driving the Co-op coaches. At the same time, I used to drive my dad’s van. At weekends I used to put planks in the back of the van to form seating and started carrying the local darts team to fixtures.
“I bought a second-hand minibus and soon realised that this was the new direction that I’d been looking for. In short order, while still 21, I started driving for Bob Mayers Coaches of Wigan. That introduced me to tours work and I found myself wanting to do more. My first coach tour of any distance was to Ilfracombe.”
By 1970, David was a tour driver with Smiths Happiways Spencer. His wife, Joan, whom he had married earlier in the year, was at home looking after their baby daughter Andrea, as well as running around doing various contracts in the family minibus.
In the summer of 1975, David was on a Smiths tour to Dunoon in Scotland when he heard that the operator was acquiring another much larger company. He recognised that that would change the family company dynamic. At the same time, more local contract work was coming in for their own minibuses. That prompted a change of plan and the joint decision was made to set up for themselves.
“I would have been happy staying with Smiths,” notes David. “But I didn’t really want to be part of a large organisation. At the end of the 1975 tour season I handed in my notice. David Ogden Coaches, as we called the new business, was born.”
By popular request
The first coach, a 45-seat Plaxton-bodied Bedford VAM 70 (CWU 760H), was bought from former St Helens’ operator George Ashton for £4,000. It was used on a handful of contracts, including schools, prison transport and trips to nightclubs.
“We started just doing extended tours booked as private hires using experience gained with Smiths,” says David. “I put together a tour package to the Isle of Wight and offered it to local schools. Word soon got round and I had senior citizens getting in touch asking if I could put something together for them as well. That resulted in tours to the Isle of Wight and to Dunoon.”
In 1980, with his entrepreneurial skills coming to the fore again, David bought local operator Clarkes of Wigan. With the company came valuable excursions and tours licences, as well as a travel agency, which Joan successfully adapted and ran.
1982 saw the publication of the first coach holiday brochure. Holidaymakers could pay a supplement for en-suite facilities and could choose to sit in the smoking or non-smoking section of the coach!
By this point David and Joan were focused on private hire and coach tours. The network of travel agencies had also increased with five new offices and four more being acquired.
In 1985 David and Joan bought their first new coach, a Plaxton Paramount 3200 (C361 TUT). Its first job was taking Carol and her friends for her ninth birthday party at Jungle Jim’s at Blackpool Tower.
Holiday at home
But 1985 also brought a new product to the David Ogden Holidays portfolio.
‘Home Base Tours’ was described as a seven-day tour “organised especially for people who find it difficult to leave their homes, relatives or pets for any length of time but who like the idea of a coach tour.”
Destinations visited across the seven days included Shrewsbury, Southport, the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales, Cheshire and the Lake District.
But like any good tour, there were rest days. The Monday to Sunday itinerary noted that the Wednesday was “a day of leisure to relax at home or get your shopping in”. On the Saturday, a second day of leisure, it was “time to take the dog for a walk or relax in your garden”.
The tours were popular but the cumulative costs of admissions to visitor attractions were high. After a good run of five years, the opportunity to go on a coach tour while staying at home came to an end.
Another string to the Ogden bow came in 1987.
“People had been asking me to set up a bus service linking St Helens with nearby Earlestown,” explains David. “Merseybus, our local operator, hadn’t chosen to run such a service, so I acquired some Leyland National single-deckers and started route 14, operating every 30 minutes on Monday to Saturday. However, in turn, Merseybus started competing with us. By 1992 we were on the verge of closing the doors on local bus services when Merseytravel offered to buy some of the fleet. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse!”
Focus on value
Fast forward to 2019 and, like so many operators, the year was on track to be the best ever.
“The Covid pandemic brought almost everything to a halt,” recalls David. “Merseytravel contracted us to run some school journeys carrying key workers’ children, which I drove, but that was it. The pause gave us time to reassess what we were doing. Private hire rates were increased to better reflect our operating costs. But for our tours and day trips, because we’re not an affluent area, the focus remains on value. We use three and four-star hotels, but we’ll also use two-star hotels if the quality is there.”
The 2025 coach tour programme offers more than 300 departures, of which around 80% are domestic. There are around 220 day trips. Three Scania Irizar i6s coaches provide the main front line fleet, together with four VDL Futura 2 and two Van Hool TX15 and TX16 coaches. Two older Bova Futura coaches, along with seven eight-seaters make up the fleet.
“We like Scania running gear,” says David. “We have two excellent Scania dealers that we use: Haydock Commercials near here and West Pennine Trucks at Trafford Park in Manchester. As a result, the next coach to join the fleet will be a Scania Touring. We have a well-equipped on-site workshop that means we can carry out the majority of our regular maintenance, alongside the Scania dealers.”
Like many coach operators, the team is a small one. There are nine full-time tour drivers, nine part-timers and five casuals. David’s youngest daughter, Carol, is the designated Transport Manager as well as having responsibility for tours and day excursions. Chris Walsh, Carol’s husband, heads up the engineering and traffic manager functions. David’s oldest daughter, Andrea, has recently come into the business to pick up the financial activity from Joan Ogden, who has now stepped back from day-to-day activities.
Strong family team
But where does that leave David?
“I’m 77 and yes, I’m planning to step back, but still be involved,” he says. “It’s hard work but a lovely job when everything is running well. In the past though I could rely on people, whether that’s suppliers or hotels. The complexity of vehicles isn’t doing you any favours. Even some of our customers, and it’s a very small percentage, seem to delight in causing problems. We’re in a very good place financially and if we did sell, we would all be OK. But we don’t need to sell. Carol and Chris are the future, and we have a good office, engineering and driving team.”
For Carol, her dad’s comments are reassuring.
“I’ve been involved in the company for 30 years,” she says. “It’s all I’ve ever known. It’s good to know I have Chris working alongside me and I have confidence in him and the team. But it’s good to still have my dad around. I still need him.”
Now, with December bringing a 50th anniversary gathering in Blackpool, David and Joan can look back on those many years of hard work, passion, enthusiasm, and being entrepreneurial when necessary.
“I’m proud of what we’ve all achieved,” says David. “Over the years we’ve also supported many different charities, and for the last 15 years we’ve raised more than £50,000 for the North West Air Ambulance. Joan and I have escorted four anniversary tours this year, including three coaches to Harrogate, three coaches to the Isle of Wight, a tour to the Scilly Isles and a continental tour to Austria and Slovenia. Our 2026 holiday brochure features tours that Joan and I want to do. I’d like to thank all our many suppliers and friends in the industry. The future is looking good, but I know that as we’ve always done, when we face difficult times, the family will sit down together to find the solutions.”
