It was almost the end of the road for Condor Ferries in November 2023. Unpaid debts triggered a dramatic legal move that could have seen Goodwill, Liberation, Voyager and Islander seized by the UK’s Admiralty Court on behalf of Poole Harbour Commissioners. If successful, Jersey could have woken up without an operational ferry.
But the picture today is very different, according to Brittany Ferries CEO Christophe Mathieu.
With operator in line to complete a full takeover of Condor just days after its new 15-year agreement with Guernsey came into effect, the CEO was in Guernsey this week and spoke extensively to Express about its vision for the fleet and becoming “almost debt-free”, hopes for greater cooperation and trade with the Brittany region, and restoring trust in the Channel Islands’ maritime future…
While frustration remains over how the ferry contract saga unfolded – and with little sign of DFDS yet delivering a reciprocal inter-island car ferry service to Jersey – Mr Mathieu said he was confident about the future, citing Condor’s restructured debt and Brittany Ferries’ return to profitability as covid-era loans are repaid.
After more than a year of talks, Guernsey and Jersey split on the tender process for a new operator on the Channel Island routes and the new services began at the end of March.
“I’m excited for BF to move on and serve Guernsey,” said Mr Mathieu.
“I’m still and I will always be disappointed, frustrated, of the way it happened, and I’m very saddened that I’ve had to lose some colleagues in Condor because of the way it was set up. However, I’m grown up. We’re moving on.
“I know it’s a challenge for BF, but it’s also a nice challenge to serve an island like Guernsey.
“It’s all part of our DNA to serve communities, but it’s a new one, it’s an island, so it’s very exciting.”
About 200 Condor staff lost their jobs because of the failure of the joint ferry tender, not including the crews, he confirmed.
“It’s a disappointment, because they were doing a good job, despite what some people said, I think time will also show how good a job they were doing.”
The bigger financial picture
One of the recurring issues raised by Jersey as it decided against entering into a contract with BF/Condor was financial concerns.
Both BF, which increased stake in Condor from 22 to 51% in September 2024, and Condor were badly hit during Covid.
More details have recently emerged about just how acute the situation at Condor became.
Poole Harbours Commissioners was one step away from impounding The Goodwill, Liberation, Voyager and Islander over unpaid fees in November 2023 having gone to the Admiralty Court with claims in rem against the vessels.
BF itself received significant financial support to help cope with the collapse of the market during covid.
It received a state-guaranteed loan of around EUR122m and in October 2020. The Brittany and Normandy Regions agreed to emergency aid of EUR30m and EUR35m respectively.
The company was given a one-off grant the following year of EUR45m from the French government.
It has now repaid the entirety of the Brittany and Normandy loans, while the States loan was for a seven year period and it has repaid about one third of that.
BF has also introduced five new ships in the last five years, including the hybrid-LNG St Malo and Guillaume de Normandie this year.
“We are not financially weak. We know where we’re going. We know our DNA. We’ve got very strong support and time will again tell.
“Just like everybody else, I pay attention to what’s happening to my competitors, and I just happen to see that one of them is not doing extremely well on a particular stock market in Copenhagen. And I find it a bit ironic.”
DFDS A/S share price has fallen by 47.96% in the last six months.
Mr Mathieu said BF was profitable now, but volumes had still not returned to 2019 levels.
That was true for the whole Channel market.
There were still 15% fewer passengers and freight crossing the Channel than five years ago when Brexit happened.
“But we did better yield, and today we are managing to be profitable. We’re never as profitable as we would want, but we are profitable enough and comfortable enough to be able to raise the financing to acquire the ship we’ve introduced.
“So we are in a decent place. Now, one thing that is tough for us, but it’s tough for a lot of companies, is that decarbonation starts to have a burden on our cost, therefore on our price.”
Since January 2024, the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has been extended to cover CO2 emissions from all large ships.
BF bookings for 2025 looked strong, but not “hugely better” than last year.
The company’s structure means that it does not have shareholders requesting a return on their equity.
“We’re not going to close a route, move outside, go to another place in Europe, because we’re born and bred in Brittany, and we’ve built that network around Brittany. Now Guernsey is part of it. We’re not going anywhere.”
Part of that commitment is moving to a 100% shareholding in Condor, an option that was outlined when it upped its 22% shareholding to 51% in September.
BF first became involved in Condor in November 2019, when alongside Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which at the time took the majority shareholding, it struck a deal with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.
Becoming the sole shareholder will offer reassurance for everybody and mean Condor becomes “almost debt-free” going forward.
More details on that will be confirmed shortly.
The future of the fleet
Jersey has also made a big play about DFDS’ plans to invest in three new vessels, starting in 2028.
For now though, it is set to use the 28 year old Tarifa Jet as one of its fast ferries, but has already run into problems with its launch as it awaits approval from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
In Guernsey, the plan is for the Voyager to be replaced in about four or five years time.
“I don’t feel I need to use that as something to hide what we’re doing today, whereas, in a funny kind of way, I find that it’s a bit of a smoke and mirror on the other side of jam tomorrow.
“I don’t want to become too controversial through the media, we are committed and we’re going do it, but we don’t promise three new ships in five years to make you forget what we’re not going to do now.”
Planning for the next generation of ship needs to take place with Guernsey Harbours.
“How are we going to bring electricity to the port? When are we going to do it? Is it going to be economically viable? What ship are we going to order?
“All of these things require a lot of work, a lot of collaboration, cooperation between port, state and I’m conscious that we are just at the beginning of this work, and we’re going to start planning meetings, and it’s going to be maybe a two year process to establish a proper plan. We are contractually committed to renew the fleet, but on the when exactly on the what exactly, we’re going to work a lot with the port of Guernsey.”
A waiting game on improving Jersey links
Brittany was asked by the States to commit to a once a week car ferry service between Guernsey and Jersey as part of its deal.
“The one thing we were always told is you do it once, and presumably DFDS and Jersey will reciprocate another day in the week. What can I do if today, as we speak, we still don’t know when there will be a reciprocal service to ours, and as they don’t even reciprocate at the moment?
“You can book with us. You can go on Wednesday, from Guernsey to Jersey, and vice versa, with your car. We can take freight from one island to another once a week. We’re still waiting for, let’s say, the other party to inform us on when, what day of the week, and what ship.
“The ball is on their side to just reciprocate, and then we’ll see going forward if we can collaborate further.”
Closer ties with France
A delegation of representatives from Brittany visited Guernsey this week as efforts are stepped up to increase cooperation between the jurisdictions.
They included the Mayor of Cancale, the Deputy Mayor of St Malo, the Chamber of Commerce of St Malo, the tourist office of St Malo, and someone representing the region of Brittany.
That could mean anything from increasing cultural links, tourism, especially promoting Victor Hugo, and trade to even one day waste exports heading south rather than north.
“We are there to facilitate and really create those bridges.
“That’s what I really like with this new contract, because it’s slightly different from what we’ve ever done before.
“I’m not bridging Ireland and France, Ireland and Spain, talking to a massive country, but Guernsey is small enough and there is that appetite from Guernsey to open up to Brittany. And by picking us as the ferry operator, they made the right choice, because, we are a very local embedded company, we’re going to bring that to them. We help bridging and hopefully that will lead to bringing a lot of value to Guernsey.”