Maximising efficiencies

“[Our strategy has been] about building on the encyclopaedic knowledge in the organisation, but also adding some new appointments to complement that,” Calvert explains.

Atkins adds: “We’ve changed some things around, some people have gone, most have stayed. We’d already got new blood into the business, but you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

“Last year was a year of transition for us,” Calvert continues. “We invested a lot in the business to create a platform for growth for 2018 onwards.

“The aim is that all business units grow in terms of customer numbers and profitability, and in levels of new customer acquisition and customer retention – which
is market-leading at more than 66%.

“We need more customers to experience the wide brands and products that we have within the group though… The ones that aren’t so well-known we want to invest
in and widen the net to attract more customers.”

“It’s really important we signpost what each of the businesses stand for in 2018. It’s all about specialisms in each of our sectors,” adds Atkins.

A culture of pride

Despite the need to distinguish the brands from the customer’s perspective, internally the group is also working to “break down silos”.

Calvert says: “There were so many people within the business who didn’t know what we did as a group – they just saw their own little silo.”

Shearings Leisure Group has created a new mission statement and values both to help encourage pride among staff, and drive for greater communication between the company’s different brands. Its colours reflect a combination of those used on logos across the group and staff “catch up” on the new initiative every quarter.

“Pride”, which is painted on some of the walls inside the new headquarters, stands for passion, respect, innovation, delivery, excellence. It sits alongside the mission statement: “Consistently delivering safe, enjoyable and memorable leisure experiences of amazing value, to earn lifetime customer loyalty”.

“It’s not just a pretty logo on the wall,” Calvert insists. “It’s a culture of one-team collaboration and looking for those synergies and cross-brand partnerships and behaviour.

“There’s been a sea-change in behaviour.”

Atkins adds: “Sometimes I think we were a bit overly modest and didn’t talk about how big we are.”

And beyond this reinvigoration of its team, the group has been working on new products and partnerships too, which in turn, Calvert says, has already led to increased brand awareness across the portfolio.

New product

“A key word for me for 2018 is specialisation,” Calvert tells me. “We want to be best in class in the areas we specialise in.

“We are seeing the brands stretch, while not losing focus on our core business. We’re touching new customers who possibly didn’t know that we did certain product lines like worldwide holidays, river cruise, events, Disney packages.”

From a Shearings Holidays perspective specifically, Atkins believes “visibility” has significantly increased. The operator had its first Strictly Come Dancing departures in January, which were “incredibly popular”, and another date has been added for Dancing on Ice packages.

“I think events are a no-brainer,” she tells me. “We definitely plan to grow that side of things. It’s making the difficult easy.

“Our Worldwide brochure is new for 2018 too and we’ll build on and refine that. We’ll launch 2019 much earlier in 2018.”

Premium escorted tours brochure Grand Tourer has returned for 2018, and 30 new coaches will join Shearings Holidays’ fleet in May. They will feature Wi-Fi, USB charging points, a “really good” seat pitch, and seats that can move laterally. No Shearings coach is more than seven years old.

A new tie-up between the operator and river cruise line A-Rosa also begins in April, which has also sold well. “It’s a really good example of a Shearings brand stretch,” Atkins enthuses. “You wouldn’t necessarily put them together but it’s about modernising our brand and giving our customers some great hardware.”

The group will look to forge further “quality partnerships” in the future across the group, because they can “cross-pollinate each other”.

“We have 45 hotels and own the freehold,” Calvert tells me. “It’s a good portfolio and we want to expand those brands as well. We’re about to announce an exciting partnership with a world-known brand around our hotel experience.”

And it’s not just the commercial side of the business keeping Calvert and Atkins busy. The Alzheimer’s Society in Scotland was recently announced as the group’s charity of choice, while a partnership with Wigan Warriors rugby league team both “gets our brand out there”, but also gives something back to staff, who are able to meet players and attend games.

Attracting customers

Atkins and Calvert are satisfied that their heartland – the over-50s market – is a “sexy place to be right now”, with a lot of wealth and a thirst for adventure.

Attracting new customers is of course also a key area, including a “massive online focus”. “There is a point of view that the more mature customer isn’t online savvy, but that’s not right,” insists Calvert.

“We’ve got a lot of opportunity with the trade.” Shearings Holidays appointed Claire Dutton in the newly created role of national key account manager at the end of last year.

“The trade – possibly through our own lack of focus in that area – didn’t have enough resource.

We’ve boosted accordingly to improve that,” continues Calvert.

“At the moment we have a trade team on Shearings Holidays but where we see opportunities for educating people on National Holidays, UK Breakaways and hotels as well, we will.”

Atkins adds: “I’ve put more of a focus on the agent community as I’ve always grown up with agents at the heart of what I’ve done.

“And agents can embrace the brand very easily and help us develop new products, because their feedback will be really valuable. Hence some of the new product development we’ve got on the go.”

But she admits many travel agents may still “automatically think about coach” when they hear the Shearings name.

“Some of the newer products like Worldwide and A-Rosa are easy to take to the trade, as they know the Shearings brand with fondness,’ she says. “It gives them an opportunity. We’ve got a great repeat customer rate and high volumes.”

Atkins continues: “If Shearings is not [an agent’s] choice of holiday it’s about engaging them, getting them to think about who they could sell it to.”

Shearings Holidays ran two A-Rosa fam trips last year and will host more fam trips this year across the operator’s product range.

“We do sell other hotels but we’ve spent a lot of money on our hotels… they’re really good value and generally in amazing buildings. If we can get agents through the doors of some of them via agent offers and/or fam trips, then great,” Atkins reveals.

“We are targeting growth, top and bottom line. There is exciting stuff coming agents’ way.”

Back to the group, Calvert reveals that sales for all business units are up for 2018, reflecting the strategy of recalibrating the business in 2017.

“It’s all part of the grand plan,” he smiles.