CHARLES GRAHAM: Tragic end for once great Wigan firm

Our office received several calls and emails from people from all over the UK in recent weeks asking if we knew what on earth was happening with Shearings.
The once very familiar Shearings coachThe once very familiar Shearings coach
The once very familiar Shearings coach

They were mainly customers of the Wigan coach holidays firm and were inquiring as to whether future bookings were likely to be honoured or whether they should be cancelling them. The most recent was a lady from Cambridgeshire who was trying to get a refund for a holiday that failed to materialise when the business closed down as the Covid-19 restrictions bit and it said it was looking to call in the administrators.

She hoped for the best because she said that, for older people like her, it was the only coach firm covering her part of the world and she depended on it.

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Each caller and correspondent said they were getting nowhere with inquiries and it seemed a reasonable thing to do to ask local news people instead. Better still, our offices are next door to each other.

But that made no difference because the Shearings building has been empty for weeks and we were kept in the dark too, until news broke the other day that parent firm Specialist Leisure Group had gone bust after no buyer could be found and 2,500 jobs look set to be lost.

It’s heartbreaking to think of all those successful years ended so abruptly, of all those loyal staff now jobless and all those customers who may struggle to find similar holiday offers when they finally escape the grip of lockdown. A sad week for Wigan’s business history.

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