Steamship Group reports record turnover

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Continued passenger growth has helped drive record turnover at the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group.

The Penzance-based company, which provides lifeline air and sea services to the Isles of Scilly, carried 215,624 passengers in the 12 months to March 31, 2018, an increase of nearly 3% on 2017 (209,853,35).

Turnover increased 2.1% from £17.09 million to a record £17.46 million. Excluding exceptional items, the group made a profit after tax of £514,736.

Announcing the group’s annual results, chairman Andrew May said that group chief operating officer, Stuart Reid, would be promoted to the role of acting MD, and he confirmed two new appointments to the Steamship Company board.

The first is Scillonian Stephen Hicks, who was brought up on the islands and had a career in the Merchant Navy before returning to Scilly in 1989, where he has been a boatman ever since.

Joining him on the board will be Henk Wiekens, joint MD of Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth.  Wiekens brings a wealth of ship building experience to the company. He is an engineer, who managed his yacht building companies in Holland and New Zealand for 12 years before joining Pendennis in 1988.

May said: “On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome Steve and Henk to the Steamship Group. They bring considerable maritime experience to the company, and in Steve we have strengthened island-based representation on the board. I also congratulate Stuart on his promotion, which is well deserved and reflects the huge contribution he makes to the business.”

During the year, the group invested £2.2 million in its assets, including £1.2 million in the Mali Rose, a larger freight vessel that is due to enter service later this year.

Following a revaluation of the Mali Rose, and a resulting exceptional impairment of £633,447 in the group’s annual accounts, the company registered a small operating loss of £0.17 million compared to an operating profit of £1.52 million last time.

May said: “The company has had another good trading year with a solid underlying performance, continuing passenger growth and record turnover. Although pre-exceptional profits were down, this reflects our ongoing investment in our staff and assets to maintain resilience. We have seen further increased staff costs through the introduction of the National Living Wage and auto-enrolment pension obligations.”

May said the Gry Maritha had completed her annual survey during the year and the Scillonian had undergone investment in preparation for her five-year survey in 2019.

“Our cash position remains strong, at almost £5 million, and with a balance sheet of £15 million the company is in its best financial health than at any time in recent decades.

“We have acknowledged our disappointment that the Mali Rose has not yet entered service but we expect to introduce her on the route later this year subject to completion of the necessary familiarisation and regulatory processes. The impairment review was a prudent one-off accounting step which we have treated as an exceptional item.”

He added: “This year has started well with increased passenger numbers and freight volumes. Our Island Helicopters service which commenced in May has been very well received by passengers, and we look forward to our new navigational systems being fully operational for the start of next season, boosting the reliability and resilience of our air services.”