Western Morning News (Saturday)
Brittany Ferries: We won’t copy P&O approach
THE boss of Brittany Ferries has given assurances that the company will not be following P&O Ferries and sacking workers to replace them with a cheaper alternative – saying it would go against its values.
Christophe Mathieu, chief executive of the Plymouth-based firm, said the business had a “moral obligation” to its workers and founders and decried the way P&O callously jettisoned 800 crew and replaced them with cheap agency staff in March.
But Mr Mathieu, in Plymouth for key meetings about the ferry port’s future, said the industry was eyeing developments at P&O carefully to see what the outcome is, and whether it will be slashing prices and undercutting rivals when its ferries return to service following a lengthy inspection process. He said the industry was at a “crossroads” which could see other firms taking similar action.
But Mr Mathieu stressed Frenchowned Brittany Ferries, which sails from Plymouth to France and Spain, would not look at such a low-cost model as it had been set up by French farmers with a brief to support jobs and the Breton region. He said that while remaining profitable, it was not driven by the desire to increase dividends at any cost.
“What is happening (with P&O) is disturbing for us,” he said. “We won’t go for a low-cost model, the delocalisation of jobs outside France and the UK.
“We are a company that needs to be profitable, and invests, is sustainable and gives employment to seafarers. It is against the values of Brittany Ferries to think we would operate with the same type of (agency) crew. We try to have good ships, good service and good crew, we have those values.”
P&O Ferries, which operates on the Dover to Calais corridor, sacked 800 workers in March saying it was the only way to stop the firm from financial collapse. But it is not the first company to replace workers with cheaper crew sourced from agencies abroad.
In 2014 Condor Ferries, which sails from Portsmouth and Poole to the Channel Islands, did just that. And in 2021, Irish Ferries announced plans to bring a low-cost crew model to the Dover-Calais route, 16 years after it first sacked crew and substituted them for agency workers.
Mr Mathieu said that the way P&O had acted was “catastrophic” and said: “P&O wanted to emulate the low-cost model.” He added: “This new era of delocalisation of seafarers is worrying. This is an easy, capitalist approach, where they find a way out by changing to cheaper staff. I have a problem with that.”
Brittany Ferries began as a freightonly operation in 1973. The first ship, Kerisnel, was a converted Israeli tankcarrier chartered by French farmers to carry produce such as cauliflowers and artichokes to the UK when it joined the EEC, forerunner of the EU.
However, the company quickly adapted. It turned to carrying passenger traffic, as well as freight, when it became clear the biggest export market was for British holidaymakers visiting Brittany and then Normandy. Today it employs French, Spanish and British crew on its ships, and British staff onshore at its terminal in Plymouth.
Mr Mathieu said Brittany Ferries’ heritage makes it very different from other corporate transport businesses. He said: “How many companies were created by farmers? They wanted the people in the Brittany area to benefit. It is a completely different business model. We are not a normal corporation that wants to make money for shareholders at any cost. We are singular in our model.”
He said Brittany Ferries had picked up some extra freight and passenger traffic following P&O’s woes, with services suspended on Dover-Calais and three ships detained following inspections, but added “it’s not massive”.