Another ferry operator struggling on cross channel route
January 25, 2012
Following the collapse of SeaFrance, attention has turned to the fragile state of another French ferry operator, Brittany Ferries, and its network of services linking several French western Channel ports, the UK, Spain and Ireland.
Its Chairman, Jean-Marc Roué, was reported this week to have claimed the company was eyeing a break-even financial position after three years in the red.
An article in the French media said Brittany Ferries’ turnover for the 12 months to 30 September 2011 was up more than 7% on the previous year to €370 million. However, losses were likely to be at a similar level to the previous 12 months, at €5.6 million.
When contacted by IFW, Brittany Ferries said it could not confirm the figures, which had not not come from a company source. Publication of official figures is not expected before March.
Responding to poor market conditions, Brittany Ferries has scaled-back its operations this winter, with the Barfleur ferry taken out of service on the Cherbourg-Poole crossing.
The company has also taken the step of laying-off 60 staff at Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff for a four-week period.
Roué has said competition with the Channel Tunnel became “very tough when P&O put bigger vessels on the Dover-Calais crossing”. He also highlighted that the high price of fuel discouraged the redeployment of vessels elsewhere on the market.
Decline on cross-Channel routes and the lack of new market opportunities has seen Brittany Ferries concentrating its development strategy on services to Spain.
Its passenger and freight services from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander and Bilbao, on the Atlantic coast, are recording strong growth.
Roué said: “In just a few years, we have gone from three weekly round-trips to seven, and 2011 traffic totalled 30,00 HGVs, 100,000 cars and 250,000 passengers.”
Set up in 1972, Brittany Ferries’ has an atypical profile for a ferry company, its shareholders being vegetable growing co-operative groups in northern Brittany, with public authorities in Brittany and Normandy also holding stakes.
In 2009, Brittany Ferries expressed an interest in acquiring SeaFrance, but a bid never materialised.
Courtesy of IFW
