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Displaying items by tag: Lucey Transport

As Afloat reported in July, the ferry giant DFDS had entered an agreement with Lucey Transport Logistics, Ltd to acquire the company, strengthening DFDS’ logistics offerings in Ireland. On 30 September, the companies completed the acquisition.

“We are excited about the integration of Lucey Transport Logistics into DFDS and to welcome our new colleagues into the DFDS Group,” says Niklas Andersson, EVP and Head of DFDS Logistics.

“The strategic fit between DFDS and Lucey means we will be the leading asset-based logistics provider on the Island of Ireland. With the acquisition, we are creating a full platform of services for customers and connecting them to the expansive DFDS network spanning 21 countries in Europe and Turkey.”

The acquisition is part of DFDS’ growth strategy to develop and expand its network and continue to offer improved solutions to customers.

By combining Lucey’s domestic offering with DFDS’ European route network, the Danish ferry and logistics company will be able to offer Lucey’s existing customers from the FMCG and packaging sectors access to international transport services in an increasingly competitive transportation and logistics market.

Published in Ferry

Danish shipping and logistics operator DFDS has entered into an agreement to acquire Dublin-based Lucey Transport Logistics.

DFDS is continuing to invest in the Irish market by acquiring 100% of the share capital of Lucey Transport Logistics Limited. This follows DFDS’ opening in early 2021 of the ro-ro (by-pass Brexit) freight ferry route between Rosslare Europort and Dunkirk, France.

The operator will benefit from Lucey’s Irish transport and logistics network, which will strengthen its customer offering in the region. This further strengthens DFDS’ logistics offering and allows DFDS to offer more comprehensive domestic and international solutions.

In addition, by combining Lucey’s domestic offering with DFDS’ European route network, the Danish ferry and logistics company will be able to offer Lucey’s existing customers from the FMCG and packaging sectors access to international transport services.

Executive Vice President and Head of Logistics Division, Niklas Andersson says: "The acquisition of Lucey Transport Logistics Ltd greatly enhances our Irish domestic offerings and complements our existing international solutions. We now offer more comprehensive supply chain solutions in the region underpinned by a network covering the entire island of Ireland."

Kevin Lucey, CEO Lucey Transport Logistics Ltd adds "We are delighted DFDS recognises that Lucey transport Logistics is a highly successful business and a leading provider of logistics services on the Island of Ireland. We are proud of the company’s great family history and our loyal customers and dedicated employees. It gives me great satisfaction to know DFDS will continue to grow and expand the business, providing exciting opportunities for our colleagues, in one of the largest logistics companies in Northern Europe."

Under the terms of the agreement, DFDS will now operate a distribution centre in Dublin and regional depots in key locations across Ireland. In addition, DFDS will take over Lucey Transport Logistics’s substantial trucking operations and their 400 trailers.

The transaction is subject to competition clearance.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020