THE company which operates the Gourock to Dunoon car and passenger ferry service has vowed to continue investing in infrastructure, as new accounts show higher repair and maintenance spending weighed on profits in its most recent financial year.
Western Ferries (Clyde) reported a pre-tax profit of £2.32 million for the year ended March 31, down from £2.51m, which came as operating expenditure climbed to £5.66m from £5.14m. Revenue grew to £7.98m from £7.66m, accounts newly-filed at Companies House show.
The accounts coincided with the Beast from the East, which put pressure on vital transport services across Scotland in February and March of last year, though Western said it completed 99.6% per cent of its 31,814 scheduled sailings over the period.
The period also saw privately-owned Western, which competes with the publicly-owned Argyll Ferries on its passenger-only Gourock to Dunoon route, continue its rolling investment programme it began in 2001.
The company, which carried 1.4 million passengers last year, invested a total of £2.7m in shoreside infrastructure over the period, which included the addition of a new linkspan and berthing structure at its McInroy’s Point terminal in Gourock.
And it is continuing the investment in its current financial year after commissioning the Ferguson Marine shipyard to build a new linkspan for its Hunter’s Quay terminal in Dunoon at a cost of £3m. Ferguson, which is part of Jim McColl’s Clyde Blowers Capital engineering group, also delivered the linkspan for McInroy’s Point.
Western’s rolling investment programme, funded from its own resources, is aimed at equipping the company with the resilience it needs to combat unforeseen events.
Earlier this year it ramped up the frequency of its service by 100 sailings per day when the Rest and Be Thankful, a vital road link to Argyll, closed.
The rolling investment programme began at Western in 2001, when it acquired a new vessel and followed that with a further new ferry in 2003. New linkspans were added on either side of its route in 2006 and 2007, before further new vessels were added in 2013.
Gordon Ross, Western Ferries long-standing managing director, said: “The most significant figure [in the accounts] is the continued investment in Western Ferries’ vessels and shoreside infrastructure. And these accounts to March ’18 illustrate the expenditure at McInroy’s Point, which is the Inverclyde, Gourock terminal.”
He added: “The investment through the year to March ’19 is going to be about the £3m mark.”
Referring to the rise in operating costs reported last year, Mr Ross said the increase reflected the importance of ensuring the “resilience” and “reliability” of the service Western offers.
He said: “This is how we deliver reliability to our customers in Inverclyde and Cowal – to invest in the vessels, maintain the vessels, and the shoreside infrastructure.”
Mr Ross added: “The new linkspans are longer therefore they are better able to deal with tidal range. We’ve extended the berthing space to improve the berthing of the vessels.”
Asked whether Western would consider expanding into other parts of Scotland, Mr Ross replied: “We are always looking at opportunities to expand the Western Ferries business model to other routes, and believe there are other opportunities on the west coast of Scotland.”
Mr Ross said the period since year-end had been busy for Western, with the area seeing a rise in the number of visitors coming from Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and abroad.
He said: “If you were looking at Argyll as a whole, everybody is saying that it was a very busy year with regards to tourists and visitors – both foreign and domestic.”
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