Family-owned company is among the UK's largest independent coach operators, Anniversary event held as part of the UK's National Coach Week

One of the UK’s largest independent coach operators, Edwards Coaches, has marked its centenary with a 100th birthday celebration thrown by the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

The family-owned operator employs around 500 people and has a fleet of more than 200 vehicles. It has a broad work portfolio from local bus services, home to school transport, private hires, corporate contracts as well as its own impressive programme of UK and European holidays.

Based in Llantrisant, Edwards’ blue vehicles are a familiar sight across South Wales. In addition to operating under its own livery, Edwards runs many of National Express’s coach services in and out of Wales as well as its depot in Avonmouth, Bristol. It is the largest National Express Partner Operator in the UK.

Edwards was granted its first operator licence from Pontypridd Urban District Council a hundred years ago this May. The business began in 1925 with charabancs transporting day-trippers to the seaside, the races and to the market town of Pontypridd. Its centenary is being marked during National Coach Week, a week-long celebration of the contribution of the coach industry to the UK economy.

Aaron Hill, Director of CPT Cymru, joined Edwards’ chairman and proprietor, Mike Edwards, and guests to sample a birthday cake at the company’s depot today.

“Edwards embodies the entrepreneurialism of the coach industry. It is a family business that has prospered over the decades by offering a first-class service to schoolchildren, holidaymakers and day trippers alike,” said Aaron Hill. “Coaches are a tremendously important part of the public transport network – a single coach arriving in a town once a day can deliver £1 million of economic value over the course of a year.”

Recent research by KPMG for the CPT found that the coach industry supports 81,000 jobs and facilitates £8.3 billion of spending by visitors in local economies across Britain annually.

Mike Edwards said: “It is unequivocal that a lot has changed in the world and in our industry over the past 100 years. But fundamentally, we’re doing exactly the same job we did a hundred years ago – moving people from A to B and back again. We are proud to continue to serve our communities and look forward to what the next 100 years will bring”.

Edwards is holding a Centenary Open Day at its Llantrisant depot on 3rd August 2025.