A Word from Our CEO, Murray Norton, October 2024

Love me tender, but love me quicker…

You will have noticed the number of ads encouraging us to book up our 2025 summer holidays and we’ve only just got back to work from this year’s break. Trust me it is only going to get worse on the ads too – If the ‘On the Beach’ with the annoying family return I’ll be taking a holiday from my TV. Trouble is holiday organising, from the planning, to getting you leave forms in and either dodging or fitting in with the school holiday times takes up time.

Imagine then being the person with the challenge of sitting with a calendar and the tide times trying to sort out the ferry schedules for next year. You need to set the times and prices and work out which vessels you use. Right now, this is complicated just a little further, with the added spice that you might not even be the ferry provided for next year. Just to remind you the current ferry tender is a decision that will rest on Jersey and Guernsey agreeing on who is awarded the contract – and the history of both islands marching in-step on transport decisions is not great. The players are big players in the market which is good – Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Irish Ferries.  One thing those in the visitor industry knows is a fast ferry service is essential. The short-break market needs a fast-ferry operation and any hiatus in that continuity would be a tourism disaster. 

I understand the tender process is underway for the bus operator in Jersey too with Liberty Bus, owned by Tower Transit looking over their sister-island shoulder. CT Plus, also owned by Tower Transit will be replaced by UK company Stagecoach South West in Guernsey from next April as will the new bus contract in Jersey.  

A tender process for key infrastructure suppliers is a huge is complex and full of risks for both the Government and the companies tendering. The current service agreement with Condor (Brittany Ferries) runs out after March 2025, which means as the sitting operator, selling tickets for an unknown next year is not great for forward bookings. Whilst this must be a carefully made decision, every day waiting for our two governments to decide, will be hindering the incumbent company more than those new entrants hoping to win the process. It will stunt any potential investment, and hold up their plans, and make those employees feel less than stable, all of which is not great for the end users. Well, by the time you read this, we could well have a decision made as to who our lifeline ferry company is, or who our bus provider will be next spring.

Speaking to businesses seeking procurement contracts, some say the time taken in the process is way slower than they would like, and those awaiting a planning decision say the same. Are businesses being unrealistic or is government process slowing up business from being more productive?