For Leger Holidays, buying the Shearings brand during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk. But the move has proved transformational for the business. Now, as Leger Shearings Group, the business is on a clear upwards trajectory
January 2020 had been a record January for Leger Holidays. Liam Race, then the company’s Commercial Director, was feeling pleased with progress. Now, as Chief Executive of Leger Shearings Group (LSG), he looks back with a smile on his face.
“At that point we’d never have thought Shearings would have been available for us to buy,” he says.
I’m meeting him, together with Chris Plummer, LSG’s Chief Product Officer, at the company’s offices on the outskirts of Rotherham.
“When the opportunity came along (in May 2020) we thought long and hard about it,” says Liam. “We didn’t know how long the pandemic was going to last, but the potential synergy between the Leger and Shearings brands was clear to see.”
Now, three years on, was the acquisition the right move?
“We’ve been on a fantastic journey,” says Liam. “Those three years have proved very challenging, but as we sit here in 2023 we can see how the acquisition has proved transformational for the business. I think it will be looked back on as one of the deals, if not the deal of the decade within the industry.”
He explains that there were a number of other people interested in the business.
“Our focus was only on Shearings,” he says. “We were never interested in National Holidays or Caledonian.”
Passenger growth
A look at the top line figures give an indication why Liam is upbeat. In 2019 Leger Holidays’ turnover was £34m.
“LSG has made bookings of over that value since the beginning of January and it’s only the end of March,” he says. “Everything being equal, the Group is on target to hit over £90m turnover this year. In terms of passenger growth, in 2019, Leger carried nearly 35,000. This year, across the group, we’re set to carry over five times that number of passengers.”
Those figures reflect other changes to LSG. In September 2022, the company acquired the brand and assets of special interest and touring travel company Arena Travel.
“We knew the business, we knew it was a reputable company and we knew the product was excellent,” explains Liam. “Arena’s specialist brands offer us routes into many different markets. It’s a natural fit.”
The LSG portfolio also include Holts Tours and Battlefield Holidays, brands that are important to the wider business, especially with the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the horizon in June 2024.
Four-week turnaround
But it is the way that Shearings has provided the impetus for growth that is at the heart of the LSG success story.
“Prior to the pandemic around 95% of Leger’s business was to mainland Europe,” explains Liam. “We had a small UK programme, but it wasn’t scalable. We acquired the Shearings database and brand assets in June 2020. Within four weeks we had a fully transactional website and a 220-page brochure. It was a phenomenal effort from everyone involved. In the first 48 hours after the ‘new’ Shearings product went on sale we took more in bookings than we had paid for the brand!
“After the acquisition we wanted to see how we could make that product feel and fit like it did before. We made a commercial agreement with Bespoke Hotels who had acquired Shearings’ hotel portfolio. We wanted our customers to have the same experience, with the same hotels. Bespoke wanted to fill its hotels and wanted to work with us. It was a perfect match.
“However, the ‘old’ Shearings business model was primarily to just fill hotels, often at a distressed price. There was a hotel arm and a touring arm, with one feeding the other. For us, selling at a really low margin just to fill hotels wasn’t what we needed, or wanted, to do.”
While we looked at that we launched Shearings’ ‘Signature’ programme into the market.
This was a completely different set of hotels, primarily four-star and with character. It’s what I describe as the premiumisation of the hotel offering. It’s sold extremely well.”
One of the key growth areas in the Shearings part of the business is continental European touring.
“We have 40 years of Leger experience in that market,” says Liam. “We’ve been able to draw on that expertise in product delivery and execution. We’re already seeing a lot of growth in the Shearings European product with the overall Shearings business seeing year-on-year growth of over 110%.
“We’re utilising our strengths and skills. This year we’ll sell more European coach holidays with Shearings than the old Shearings did in 2019. We’re on target to do likewise with Leger. Many coach tour operators are staying away from mainland Europe, but for us, we’re seeing growth. We are now undoubtedly the UK’s number one escorted coach tour operator into mainland Europe.”
Luxuria growth
Leger’s unique 2+1-seated Luxuria product launched in 2015.
“By the end of this year we will have 13 Luxuria coaches operated by nine operators,” explains Chris Plummer. “It’s where we’re seeing a lot of our growth. Our strategic plan is that by 2026 we’ll have 20 Luxuria coaches.”
Chris explains that the original concept of Luxuria was based around 31-seat VDL Futura 2 coaches. Today, of the 13 coaches, four are VDL and nine are Scania Irizar i8s or i8 integrals. The Irizars have infotainment seat-back systems supplied by Azimut.
“Luxuria has developed beyond our expectations,” he says. “It’s the business class equivalent of coach travel. We’re seeing people who’ve had a couple of years of not doing a lot, now wanting the finer things in life. Our Luxuria product delivers that.”
Leger’s Silver Service fleet now totals 23 coaches provided by 14 operators. The Shearings liveried fleet comprises 40 coaches provided by 16 operators. In total, LSG works with around 40 operators on a regular basis covering Leger and Shearings tour operations. At peak times there will be around 100 vehicles on the roads operating on LSG work.
“We have a specification for new vehicles – 40 seats and a rear lounge for Silver Service, and 31 seats in a 2+1 configuration for Luxuria,” continues Chris. “The design allows for coaches to be de-specified for Shearings work or when they move away from us. When we acquired Shearings we needed operators of course. We allocated work to our Leger family of operators first but the size of the business meant we had to start looking elsewhere. We go by recommendation, reputation and location although many operators get in touch with us first. We’re always looking for operators with a strong, positive reputation who can deliver reliability and quality drivers.”
Opportunity for investment
One of those operators was Warwickshire-based Ridley’s Coaches. Co-owner Becs Ridley says that it was an opportunity that presented itself.
“Post pandemic, Jordan, my partner, and I were discussing where do we go now,” she explains. “We’d had no previous dealings with LSG. In July 2021 we started with our first Shearings-branded coach. Our passenger score was good and we gained more work. Summer 2022 brought our first Silver Service-liveried coach. Now we have nine vehicles: two Luxuria, two Silver Service and five Shearings.
“LSG is wonderful to work for. The team in the offices are really good. We have faith in them. They pay well and on time. On the back of that we’ve gone out and invested in the new vehicles. We wouldn’t have done that on our own. We hope to continue investment in the future. We have a comfortable, happy relationship that works for both of us.”
Chris explains that the relationship with new operators is a learning curve.
“Some new operators, such as Ridleys, have been really fantastic,” he says. “But like any new relationship it doesn’t always work. We don’t rush to get operators to put coaches into livery. Sometimes the work doesn’t always fit with how an operator works. We understand that. New operators mostly start on Shearings and UK work.
“We believe we’re the best paying tour operator in the industry for this kind of work. During the fuel crisis, as prices soared, we put in place a fuel charge supplement payable to operators. This came in at around £1m.”
The TV advert kicks in
In January, viewers of ITV’s ‘Emmerdale’ will have seen a new TV advert. Starting with the intriguing phrase: “It starts with a perfect pick up!”, over the next 60 seconds the advert delivered a masterclass in highlighting all the benefits and the positive experience of a coach holiday, with Leger of course.
“We spent a fortune on the ad,” says Liam Race. “Almost as much as we paid for Shearings! From 1 January to the end of March some 46 million people have seen it. It’s brought an uplift in our unprompted brand awareness by some 30% and helped raise the profile of the industry too. Our aspiration is to keep pushing that awareness. We’re on a journey of growth. We want our operators, partners and suppliers to come on that journey with us, and the advert has played an important part in that.”
There was another, pleasant surprise for Liam.
“I went on the film shoot,” he says. “I wanted a mix of younger people in the advert so we had some younger actors. I was on the coach when they arrived. Their reaction was along the lines of “Wow, this is amazing.” Many of them hadn’t been on a coach before, outside of school trips. They said they wanted to come back. It’s getting people to see a taste of the product, to see it visually, and to experience it. We know that once people try a coach holiday the repat rates can be phenomenal.”
The way that the traditional Leger Shearings’ demographic of 55+ has adapted to searching online is seen as being something that’s here to stay.
“We recognised that we needed to redesign our website to enrich the booking experience and to make the process easy,” says Liam. “Our new website and platform, launched in June 2020, is all built in house. Many coach tour operators are using a traditional website design. We wanted to present a modern design that’s cutting edge. We now have that design and an industry-leading web platform that really sells the product, as well as making it easy to understand and buy. Conversions are higher.
“We also have a new customer relationship management (CRM) system that means we know more about a customer’s travel history and how satisfied they were with previous trips. We also know what tour you’re likely to want to go on next so we can recommend options. We didn’t have a full CRM system before. The Shearings acquisition gave us the resource to move with this.
Short Sea Crossing
For a business so dependent upon the short-sea crossing from Dover to Calais, the P&O debacle in early 2022 impacted the business massively.
“We were just about beginning to operate on some kind of scale into Europe,” explains Chris. “Our main partners were P&O Ferries and Eurotunnel. But when P&O Ferries stopped operating we talked quickly with DFDS and Irish Ferries. We already had good relationships with them. Both teams were very helpful and listened to what we needed. We were able to fulfil everyone’s holidays although we had to beg, steal and borrow space to get there. But we got every tour away.”
As the summer approached Eurotunnel announced it wouldn’t be accepting any coach business in July and August.
“The majority of our work was with DFDS and Irish Ferries,” says Chris. “Once P&O Ferries started sailing again we began to allocate work to them as well to cover the huge summer volume. Now we’re back working with the three ferry companies and Eurotunnel. We use Stop24 services on the M20 at Folkestone as the interchange point for our continental European tours. We use all three ferry companies and Eurotunnel as needed to ensure our tours are crossing the Channel within the same time window.”
For domestic tours LGS uses four interchanges at Skelton Lake services on the M1 south east of Leeds, Lymm services on the M6 in Cheshire, Cobham services on the M25 in Surrey and Rugby services on the M6 in Warwickshire.
Looking ahead, Chris recognises the challenges.
“Government contracts to house refugees have reduced the number of hotels, and river cruise ships available to us. That has seen some other prices rise. But on a positive note, that has brought us into contact with many new suppliers.”
Final word to Liam.
“Our trajectory is upwards,” he says. “We’ll do over £100m in turnover in 2024. We’re seeing building blocks of growth. During the pandemic people went online more. They’re used to the tech and familiar with online channels. That’s a real game-changer. The pandemic gave us a break to think about how we moved the business forward. Shearings was the enabler. It brought financial opportunities that enabled systems growth and significant improvements in our marketing strategy. We also hired some very talented product people, a move that is proving instrumental in getting the best out of suppliers.
In 2020, when we signed the Shearings paperwork, wondering if we were doing the right thing, none of us could have predicted quite how transformational that move was to be.”
