Company History
The company was formed before the First World War, originally delivering furniture from its shop in Bradford, Manchester. Maynes branched out into coach excursions in the 1920s, running trips to the coast and to Buxton. They would later expand their coaches to run trips to football matches and race meetings. By the start of the 1930s, the company concentrated on passenger transport and would continue to grow during the 1930s and moved to its present HQ on Ashton New Road in Clayton. They were previously based in Beswick.
Coach services would stop when the Second World War broke out and struggled to recover after the war ended, with the costs of fuel, labour and vehicles rising and passenger numbers dropped due to the increase of cars on the road. During the 1960s, the company would received numerous offers from Manchester Corporation Transport to take over Mayne. By resisting the offers, the company was able to grow steadily and would increase its services in the 1980s.
The Warrington operation was acquired through the purchase of Barry Cooper Coaches of Grappenhall Road, Warrington by members of the Mayne family in 1982. Although this was originally a separate business to Mayne, the Mayne name and red and cream livery were soon adopted to aid interoperability and further the company brand. In 1989 the coach operations in Manchester expanded into the Fairclough Street depot. In 1998 Barry Cooper coaches was renamed Mayne Coaches, and moved to its present site.
Over the years the company has grown from an initial purpose built coach in 1925 and new bus in 1929, with expansion coming through acquisition of local bus and coach operators, and through purchases of new buses and coaches. The company resisted numerous attempts at nationalisation due to a licensing agreement made in 1930 with Manchester Corporation regarding bus service provision.
Once free of such restrictions and political pressure in 1986, due to deregulation of bus services, the company went on to survive the new era of competitive bus service operation, until sale of the bus operations in January 2008.
Having always been a family run business, Mayne's bus division was sold to the Stagecoach Group after the children of the current managing director, Stephen Mayne, did not express an interest in running the company. The Ashton New Road bus depot was sold to supermarket chain Aldi, which commenced demolition in December 2007. The bus fleet then briefly operated from the Fairclough Street coach depot, supplemented with temporary parking at the adjacent Velodrome. After obtaining Office of Fair Trading clearance on 10 January 2008, the sale of the bus fleet and registrations was completed on 21 January 2008.
The company remains as a coach operator, with the Head office at Warrington, and was under the ownership of Stephen Mayne until he died, aged 62, in July 2012. The company continues to be run as a family business by the Mayne family and maintains it's position as one of the leading coach operators in the North West.
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