Ferry and freight business reports 9.7% decline in passenger numbers

IRISH Continental Group (ICG) – the ferry and freight services business – has reported a 9.7% year-on-year decline in passenger numbers for the 25-week period up to the end of last week.

The group, via its Irish Ferries business, carried 571,000 people over the period. Car passengers were down 6.6% on the same period last year, with 145,500 cars carried.

There was also a 23% year-on-year fall in the group’s roll-on/roll-off freight market business, with Irish Ferries carrying 93,700 freight vehicles. Container volumes shipped by ICG’s freight services businesses, Eucon and Feederlink fell by 29% and 27%, respectively.

Addressing shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel yesterday, ICG chairman John McGuckian said that the business has witnessed a continuation of the challenging trends identified in the group’s last interim management statement, issued in May. “I reiterate that we are continuing to actively manage our cost base to leave us in a strong position to benefit when the markets, in which we operate, recover.”

Back in May, ICG reported a 25% fall in group revenue (on a year-on-year basis) for the first five months of the year, to €76.2 million; off-set to a degree by a 24% decline in operating costs, brought on by lower pay-roll, fuel and port charges.

The company has also already said its ongoing cost management programme will not result in fresh redundancies, but it will continue its policy of not replacing employees who leave naturally.

ICG’s workforce has fallen in this regard by around 8%, to 438 people, over the past 12 months.