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Displaying items by tag: CEO Steps Down

P&O Ferries Janette Bell, the Dover based chief executive officer who has just overseen a 1,100 redundancy scheme, is handing the reigns over to short routes managing director David Stretch who will become acting CEO.

Looking back over her three years in charge Ms bell told staff via email, according to KentOnLine. 

She said: “It has been a privilege and a great challenge to lead this remarkable company for three years and I feel that now is the right time to hand over the reins to a new chief executive who can work with you to write the next chapter in our story.”

Having led P&O through the Brexit process to date and the Covid-19 pandemic, she has overseen significant transformational change.

The staff communication said this has put the company "in a strong position to thrive again going forward."

Mr Stretch will be at the helm until further notice.

Further reading of the story here. 

In March Afloat reported P&O's announcement to furlough 1,100 staff on their key Dover-Calais route as it suspends passenger business – following a huge drop in demand due to the Covid-19 which led to focusing efforts on maintaining freight flows to and from the UK.

In addition to English Channel and North Sea services, P&O Ferries operate the Irish Sea route of Dublin-Liverpool and on the North Channel the Larne-Cairnryan link.

Published in Ferry

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).