Swansea-Cork Ferries has been bought out from its Greek owners by a management-led consortium of Cork-based business people for £2.1 million.
Mr Thomas Hunter McGowan, the managing director of Swansea-Cork Car Ferries, who was involved in the acquisition of the company from Strintzis Lines Shipping, said the intention was to run a bigger ferry on the route in about a year's time.
In the interim period, the company will continue to use the Strintzis chartered ferry, MV Superferry, when the route from Ringaskiddy to Swansea in Wales, re-opens on March 15th.
Mr McGowan said the acquisition was made through a mixture of equity and debt. There was a Welsh interest in the company, amounting to about 20 per cent of assets.
"Our main commitment is to keep the service going and keep the choice going. We are the only direct link between the south west and the UK," Mr Hunter McGowan said. He said the group had been trying to make the acquisition for some time. Citing the impending disappearance of duty free sales and increased competition, Strintzis finally decided to concentrate on its core Mediterranean and Adriatic activities. "Over there we were a oneshop company and over here we have 14 ships," the chief financial officer, Mr Vassilis Astassakis, said. Strintzis acquired the business from Cork and Kerry county councils, Cork Corporation and Glamorgan County Council for £991,438 in 1993.
The MV Superferry is a chartered roll-on, roll-off which flies under a Greek flag. It has capacity for 1,400 passengers, 350 cars and 40 trucks, with a crew of up to 70. From May to September, it sails on a daily basis and travels on alternate days for the rest of the year apart from a six-week period in February/March when it is in dry dock.
A holding company, Briarstar, has been set up by Mr Hunter McGowan along with the other key players, Mr Denis Murphy, chairman of the acquired company, Mr Des Morrissey, a director of Swansea-Cork, and the chairman of the Port of Cork Authority, Mr Frank Boland.
Mr Hunter McGowan added that Briarstar wished to develop the route as a holiday one, and would be seeking a ferry with more berths. The service relied on holiday makers, most of whom were touring, for 80 per cent of its business.
He was not worried about the abolition of duty free which, some analysts suggest, will affect turnover by 30 per cent on the Ireland-Britain routes. "We are starting from a zero base, so we will not be relying on it to the same extent," Mr Hunter McGowan said.
