Rising tide of success
Sea Swift marks 30th birthday as company picks up big head of steam
FIVE years ago, politicians joined Far North business bigwigs and music legend Daryl Braithwaite in toasting the 25th birthday of an Australian shipping giant.
It has been full steam ahead for Sea Swift, one of the region’s biggest employers, since that gala event at the Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal in 2012.
With hundreds now set to celebrate the company’s 30th on Friday night, its latest chief executive Fred White reflected on a “pivotal” five years in Sea Swift’s history and was buoyant about the business’ longterm future.
“Now is really the transition for us into being a multi-generational company …. and about setting up for the next 30 years,” he said.
Private equity firm CHAMP Ventures is now the major shareholder of Sea Swift, a Cairns-based cargo venture founded by the late Sid Faithfull in 1987.
It has 28 vessels and 420 employees, shipping crucial cargo to remote communities across Northern Australia.
The most notable move for Sea Swift over the past five years has been its protracted takeover of the Toll Marine Logistics freight assets.
The move was knocked back by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission before being approved in July last year.
“The ACCC objected to us taking on that whole market share. They said it was going to be a monopoly and couldn’t allow it,” Mr White said.
“But we told them that we understood the market and were prepared to guarantee service levels and price, so you could see that we’re not gouging – this is about essential services into these regions.
“Because this type of business is so capital intensive, the only way shipping performs well is through further consolidation or increasing your market. The margins are so tight.
“It’s allowed us to bolt-on in its entirety the Northern Territory market … and it particularly gave us access to Gove (Peninsula) and Groote Eylandt and the key contracts there.” Mr White, who joined Sea Swift in 2009, said the business was now delivering about 500 containers of freight a week between Cairns and Darwin.
He said the company would aim to renew some of its fleet over the next five years.
Sea Swift will mark its 30th birthday with celebrations at the Cairns Convention Centre, Thursday Island and in Darwin.
Sadly missing will be Mr Faithfull, who died in April 2014 aged 68, and was described as the “ultimate entrepreneur”.