Sanders Coaches is a bus and coach operator based in

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town and civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to 3,810 at the 201 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Its managing director is Charles Sanders. As of September 2021, it has approximately 115 employees.

History

Sanders Coaches was founded on 1 December 1975 by Norman J Sanders, following the retirement of Sanders' employer George Bennett. Sanders took over six vehicles from Bennett's Coaches. Sons Paul and Charles later joined the company. Initially a coach operator, Sanders was encouraged by the local authority to begin operating local bus services when

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

occurred in 1986. Its first route ran from

Sheringham Sheringham (; population 7,367) is a seaside town and civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District ...

to Holt. On 1 March 1992, Sanders bought Bammant's Coaches in

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north-west of Norwich. The town is at the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to N ...

as its owner was ready to retire. The addition of Bammants' 15 vehicles made it the largest coach operator in Norfolk with 62 vehicles. In 2019, Sanders closed its Fakenham depot, merging its operations with its depot in Holt. In May 2020, Sanders Coaches was given permission to expand its depot in Holt. In 2024, Sanders bought a former Sheffield Insulations warehouse on Bessemer Road in South

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, for use as a new depot.

Routes

Sanders operates the majority of bus services in North Norfolk. When

Stagecoach in Norfolk Stagecoach in Norfolk (formerly Norfolk Green) was a bus operator based in King's Lynn in Norfolk, England. It operated public bus services in the counties of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire as well as numerous school and college servic ...

ceased operations in April 2018, Sanders took over the eastern section of its ''Coasthopper'' route, between

Wells-next-the-Sea Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England. The civil parish has an area of and in 2001 had a population of 2,451,Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household c ...

and

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

, which Sanders extended to

North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. The town is located south of Cromer and Norwich is south. Demography The civil parish has an area of ...

. At Wells, it connects with

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

's ''Coastliner'' which goes to

Hunstanton Hunstanton (sometimes pronounced ) is a seaside resort, seaside town in Norfolk, England, which had a population of 4,229 at the 2011 Census. It faces west across The Wash. Hunstanton lies 102 miles (164 km) north-north-east of London an ...

and

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

. In 2021 and 2022, six new

MCV Evora The MCV Evora (stylised as ''eVoRa''; internal designation: MCV C113/C123/C133) is a single-decker bus bodywork produced by Manufacturing Commercial Vehicles (MCV) since 2018, as the successor to the MCV Evolution. The Evora is currently available ...

-bodied

Volvo B8RLE The Volvo B8RLE is a 7.7-litre-engined low-entry bus chassis manufactured by Volvo since 2013 for left-hand drive markets. It was designed as a replacement for the B7RLE and the B9RLE. The right-hand drive version was launched in November 2 ...

s were bought for the service. Chris Haslam of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' named the Coasthopper and Coastliner "the two best buses in Britain." In 2021, the firm introduced the number 8 ''Holt Hopper'' service, a local service operating within Holt, funded by section 106 contributions from local housing estates. This route was withdrawn on 2 September 2023, due to low patronage.

Fleet

As of 2023, Sanders has a fleet of 85, a mixture of buses and coaches, a majority of which have

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

chassis. In May 2021, the firm purchased a new

Plaxton Panther The Plaxton Paragon and Plaxton Panther are closely related designs of coach bodywork built by Plaxton in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, since 1999,Millar, Alan (2007) ''Bus & Coach Recognition'' : Ian Allan Ltd., and still in produc ...

coach. In 2022, the firm increased its fleet of

buses to ten. Sanders also has three

Yutong Yutong (officially Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of commercial vehicles, especially electric buses, headquartered in Zhengzhou, Henan. Yutong also has businesses in construction machinery, real estate, and other in ...

TC9 midi coaches, including the first PSVAR compliant example.

References

{{Bus companies in the East of England, state=collapsed Bus operators in Norfolk Holt, Norfolk 1975 establishments in England Transport in Norfolk