Our History

Formation and early years

On 1st December 1975 Norman Sanders purchased the business of Bennet's Coaches of Holt, the small six vehicle coach company at which he was employed, when owner George Bennet decided he wanted to sell his business. With six children at home and very little money, it was a huge risk for both Norman and his wife Gladys only made possible by the generosity of George Bennet in giving Norman a personal loan. The purchase included the vehicles and small premises in Holt Town Centre.

Above: Norman and Gladys Sanders.

From the initial fleet of six, the company steadily grew in size as rural village schools closed and coaches were needed to transport children to larger catchment schools. The first few years of business were far from easy, with Norman juggling family life and learning the ropes of running the business. An early hurdle for the business was a visit from the Ministry of Transport who judged the inherited premises were not suitable, giving nine months for Norman to find a new premises. The business moved to what was Howard's Dairies, now the main car park in Holt, in August 1976.

In 1983, the opportunity arose to open a second premises; a full circle moment for Norman as he took on the lease for what Eastons Coaches garage on Cadogan Road in Cromer (Now where QD is situated). Eastons had moved into the site when they acquired Reynold's of Cromer, where Norman worked prior to moving to Bennet's Coaches. 

Above: A typical view of our former Holt depot as business grew through the 1980s. The vehicle is a 1978 Bedford with Duple bodywork. Photo from Tim Plowman, FLICKR.

Ten years of growth

The company grew beyond recognition through the 1990s, as Sanders Coaches acquired some of the many other local coach operators across North Norfolk. Acquisitions included Dunthornes of Wells in August 1994, Wards of Mundesley in January 1994 and Birds of Hunstanton in August 1998. The most notable acquisitions were Bammants of Fakenham, which included twelve coaches and small depot on Claypit Lane in March 1992, followed in April 1993 by Crescent Coaches in North Walsham including over twenty coaches and a large depot on Cornish Way Industrial Estate. That depot we still operate from today and is home to some of our frontline bus operations such as X55 and Coasthopper. 

Above: Our Holt Depot on Heath Drive, photographed when newly built in 1991.  The depot now includes extended office and workshop facilities.

The purchase of Crescent Coaches was well timed, as the landlord of the Cromer garage refused a new lease, leaving the family forced to relocate twelve coaches and make staff redundancies, or find a new premises. The Crescent Coaches acquisition facilitated that swift move, but was not without further hurdles for Norman's business. Crescent Coaches was purchased from receivership, bringing with it financial struggles. Much of the workshop equipment and a handful of the coaches purchased from the receivers turned out to be leased and very quickly was taken away from us. The only way to keep the new depot going was to invest heavily in equipment and in new coaches. 

Norman and Gladys ran a highly successful tour operation during the heyday of coach holidaying, which included booking agent shops in towns across North Norfolk. 

Growing a local bus network

Operation of local bus services began from April 1980. Most notably in early 1982 the introduction of a service between Blakeney and Sheringham, which ran on the days that Eastern Counties did not, represented the first example of direct competition with the National Bus Company. The gradual demise of Eastern Counties services in North Norfolk commenced towards the end of 1983 and continued up until the closure of their Cromer Bus Station office and Central Road garage in January 1985. By deregulation day, in October 1986, twenty six regular bus services were operated by the company. 

Notably, in 1986, our network stretched as far as Central London with a regular Friday, Saturday and Monday service operating from North Norfolk into London aimed at those holidaying in local caravan parks. Many of the services we run today have been part of the business for some thirty plus years. Today our network of regular services stretch as far as Harpley in the West, Great Yarmouth in the East and Diss in the South.

Buses and coaches through the years

The trusty Bedford was a staple of the fleet from the formation of the company to the late 1990s. These characterful vehicles were full of charm, each carefully hand painted  and sign written all in slightly varying styles of the same colour scheme. The first brand new coach delivered to the company was in February 1986, a Bedford YNV with Plaxton Paramount bodywork. 

Our orange colour scheme became a staple of the fleet from 1998, first worn by two Neoplan bodied Dennis Javelins. This timeless livery has travelled all over the United Kingdom and into Europe as far as mountains in Switzerland and Austria , Spain, Italy , Northern Europe, Scandinavia and even Poland Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Above: Our iconic orange and blue striped livery first appeared in 1998, on a pair of Neoplan bodied Dennis Javelins (R11 SCH and R22 SCH). Photo copyright David Beardmore, FLICKR.

As we moved into the early 2000s and faced with an ever growing local bus network, the number of service buses in the fleet grew and grew. DAF based single deckers were generally the vehicle of choice, having taken advantage of nearly new buses being sold second hand from airport parking fleets. Most of these vehicles had Hungarian built Ikarus bodies, with very continental feeling interiors.

Above: Photographed in King's Lynn in  February 1997, M833 RCP was one of many of these Ikarus Citibus bodied DAF buses which made up the bus fleet. Photo copyright David Beardmore, FLICKR.

In June 2005, the first brand new double deck bus was purchased for the front line 44 route. YJ05PZE, named 'Pegasus' was even modelled by Corgi as part of the 'Original Omnibus Company' range. 

Recent History

The most recent business acquisition came in April 2014, with the purchase of Neaves of Catfield. This included five vehicles and the operation of small number of local bus services in the Stalham and Wroxham area into Norwich. Also in 2014, building works to extend our engineering facilities at Holt Depot were undertaken to cope with an ever growing fleet of vehicles to look after.

In 2018, the opportunity arose to purchase a further plot of land in Holt a short distance from our main depot. The building was previously home to Kongskilde Agriculture who built farming machinery in the town for many years. This gave us crucial space to store vehicles, but also became the new home for Head Office and Customer Services. Within the former Kongskilde office building, we rent office and storage space to many local businesses.

Sanders Coaches really put quality bus travel in Norfolk on the map in November 2023, winning the gold award for Top Independent Bus Operator at the UK Bus Awards. Against tough competition, our driver's customer care and uniform standards were highly praised by mystery shoppers and our reliability figures were highly commended. Special mention was also made to our then newly relaunched X55 express service which operates between North Walsham and Norwich City Centre. 

Above: Sanders Coaches staff celebrate with Charles Sanders (MD) on winning 2023 Top Independent Bus Operator

Also in November 2023 a new site on Bessemer Road in Norwich was acquired, formerly home to Sheffield Insulation Group (SIG). The building and site was extensively renovated to the very highest of standards and now includes a top of the range bespoke workshop and on site refuelling facility. The depot is predominantly home to a large part of our coaching operation, but also houses a handful of buses which operate services in the Reepham and Cawston areas. Our new Norwich Depot was formally launched with an open day in September 2025.

Above: Our purpose built engineering facility at Norwich Depot, which opened in September 2025.

The company became double award winning in November 2024, when we again took home the gold award for Top Independent Bus Operator. Winning this award two years running is an accolade we are immensely proud of, testament to the hard work of our staff.

We celebrated our 50th year of business in style in November 2025 with a gala celebration at Top of The Terrace, Carrow Road - a nod towards our long partnership with Norwich City Football Club. As well as staff and family, friends, suppliers and stakeholders were invited to attend. Three of our modern vehicles were specially selected to carry our retro-livery with 50th Anniversary emblems, plus one of our X44 double deckers in a special adaptation of the current livery celebrating our commitment to serving North Norfolk Communities for 50 years.

Above: 133, 'Mabel', wears a special adaptation of our X44 livery - Proudly service the communities of North Norfolk since 1975.

We would like to pay special thanks to Stephen Purkiss for his assistance in compiling this page.