This week Celtic Link Ferries added a second ship on its Dublin-Liverpool service. Paul Tyrrell's all-hands-on-deck approach seems to be paying off, writes Claire Shoesmith

The phrase "hands on" appears to be the best way to describe Paul Tyrrell. The chief executive of Ireland's newest ferry company seems to have no qualms getting his hands dirty.

Two years ago, not long after Celtic Link Ferries had been set up, one of the cleaning staff failed to turn up to prepare the ship for its return journey from Rosslare to Cherbourg in northwest France.

"Instead of waiting for a replacement, I just rolled up my sleeves and jumped on board," says the 44-year-old Wicklow man, who spent that evening changing beds along with the ship's other contractors.

Luckily for Tyrrell, this all-hands-on-deck approach to work appears to be a trait among the company's other directors, three of whom - all members of the O'Flaherty family from Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford - just spent two weeks camped out on the very same ship in dry dock in Dublin carrying out its annual maintenance check.

"It's about keeping the costs down," says Tyrrell, adding that this is very important when a company is finding its feet.

Certainly not one to be tied to the desk, Tyrrell's laptop and mobile phone are his office as he travels between France, England, Dublin and Wexford in a bid to win new business from rivals including P&O, Stena Line and Norfolkline. If he hooks up with a few old friends along the way then all the better.

In fact, catching up with friends has proved an important part in growing Celtic Link's business from the €13 million of revenue it made in 2005 to the €60 million it is forecast to make this year.

"I already had relationships with many of these people in my previous job," says the former sales manager for P&O ferries. "It was just a case of picking up where we left off, and they were all very happy to do business with us."

This week Celtic Link added a second ship on its Dublin-Liverpool service, an addition that, according to Tyrrell, was desperately needed.

"The one-ship service we were operating was simply not satisfying demand," he says of the freight service started by the company in May last year.

Just over a year earlier, in early 2005, Celtic Link had been born with the purchase of the Diplomat - still the only ship owned outright by the company - for €10 million from P&O.

Since then Celtic Link has chartered three more vessels. When its fourth service, running between Portsmouth and Cherbourg, starts operating next month, it will have enough capacity to carry 140,000 unaccompanied freight loads between Ireland and France, and Ireland and Britain each year.

While competition is what business is all about - Celtic Ferries has been winning business from rivals as well as attracting new customers that would previously have come into dock in Belfast - it's also how this particular company came to be.

In 2004, when the UK Competition Commission blocked Stena from taking over P&O's Liverpool-Dublin route, citing competition concerns on the Irish Sea, Tyrrell, who along with many other employees feared for his job in the restructuring that was taking place at P&O, saw an opportunity.

Fearing the worst, and at the same time seizing the opportunity, he met a few friends, and several P&O colleagues with the aim of generating support for a buyout of the Diplomat, which until December 2004 operated between Rosslare and Cherbourg under the P&O brand. The task did not prove a difficult one.

Helped by the six O'Flaherty brothers who feared for the future of their Co Wexford-based fish-export business if the freight route was suspended completely, the funds were quickly raised and before he could change his mind the Diplomat was under new management and back in operation.

Tyrrell has a 5 per cent stake in the company, with the rest being held in equal part between Denis and Séamus O'Flaherty, and several other investors who declined to be named.

"The whole area of unaccompanied traffic was being overlooked," says Tyrrell, adding that the established players did not have the space to cater for this sort of business. "All we did was come in and fill a vacuum."

Today it's probably fair to say that many of the products that find their way on to your kitchen table or into your wardrobe probably came here alone. Like a minor flying without parents, container loads of clothes destined for Irish Marks & Spencer stores, or Dairygold butter and Magners cider heading for supermarkets in Britain, sail across the Irish Sea without human accompaniment.

This is something that Tyrrell is happy with. Asked whether he would consider running a passenger service (the Rosslare-Cherbourg route does have some passenger capacity), he is quick to shake his head.

Not only is there the issue of increased competition from airlines putting pressure on passenger ferry operators - Irish Ferries in September reported a 10 per cent decline in passenger numbers - but there are also costs to consider. It's estimated that it costs about €15,000 a day to run a container ship such as those operated under charter by Celtic Link, compared with €30,000 for a passenger ferry - quite a difference.

Still, while holidaymakers' enthusiasm for ferry trips may be waning, the same cannot be said for freight operators.

The Celtic Sun, which made its maiden scheduled voyage for Celtic Link this week between Dublin and Liverpool, has the capacity to carry 115 freight units, 50 more than the Celtic Star, which already operates on the same route.

Combined the two ships will now be able to provide what Tyrrell calls a complete service each day - crossing the Irish Sea in eight hours, unloading for four, and then turning round and repeating the process. This non-stop offering is something he hopes will attract new customers.

Looking at the market, this doesn't seem overly optimistic. The 65 units on the Celtic Star are booked up continually and the company has been inundated with inquiries about more capacity.

Despite already having a background in shipping, getting the new business off the ground has been a huge learning curve for Tyrrell. Celtic Link now employs 13 people directly and a further 20 indirectly through outsourcing arrangements in the various ports where its ships dock.

In Dublin the company is currently in talks with the Dublin Port Authority in an attempt to increase its acreage at the port. Still, while it is important to grow the business, transporting goods may not be all Celtic Link does in the future.

The company has an International Ship Management (ISM) certificate, meaning that it can, as is currently common practice at Irish Ferries following the laying off of its own staff last year, operate and manage ships on behalf of other companies.

"We have a lot of plans," says Tyrrell, adding that the final decision about the direction of the company will not be his alone.

Still, judging by the number of times his phone rang in the one hour I was with him, it would probably be fair to say he has enough on his plate for the time being.