Portfolio
Nature of Business
Shearings Group is a European market leader specialising in escorted tours and operation of resort hotels. Shearings operates a fleet of 250 coaches and a chain of 50 resort hotels. Shearings employs over 3,000 staff and has an active customer base of around two million people who are predominantly in the over-50 age group.
Investment Overview
3i backed the £100m acquisition of Shearings from Bridgepoint Capital in March 2005 and subsequently merged it with existing 3i portfolio company, and main competitor, Wallace Arnold to create Shearings Group. Shearings is now Europe’s largest escorted tour operator and the 2nd largest pure play UK leisure hotels operator and has six main trading brands.
We have introduced our Active Partnership initiatives in two key areas; lean operations and pricing, which has significantly improved the performance of the tour operation division. Further to this we have worked to refocus the business strategy, splitting the product-range into two clear areas: Hotels and Tour Operation. Shearings has seen a strong performance from its hotels division driven by the launch of its new Coast, Country and Bay Hotel brands and recently completed a £10m upgrade programme across its hotel estate. The new brands and products have also successfully introduced younger customers to the group.
In the group’s tour operations division; which includes the Shearings, National and Caledonian brands; sales of escorted tours to UK locations have grown strongly in recent years. Sales of its recently-launched river and sea cruise programme - under the Shearings brand – are also performing well with new product launches and additional capacity planned for 2012.
