Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Transport |
Founded | 1961 |
Defunct | 2010 |
Fate | Integrated into DFDS Seaways |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Irish Sea English Channel North Sea |
Key people | Thomas Woldbye MD & CEO |
Services | Passenger transportation Freight transportation |
Revenue | 1 billion + EUR (2007) |
Number of employees | 2,200 (2008) |
Norfolkline was a European ferry operator and logistics company owned by Maersk. It provided freight ferry services on the English Channel, Irish Sea, and the North Sea; and passenger ferry services on the English Channel and Irish Sea; and logistics services across Europe. Norfolkline employed more than 2,200 employees in 13 countries across Europe, operating out of 35 different locations.
Norfolkline operated 18 vessels and over 550 refrigerated trailers (including 200 with dual compartment units), 1,750 dry-cargo trailers, and 1,150 swap-body trailers for intermodal freight transport. In 2006 more than 1.5 million passengers used Norfolkline's ferry services across the English Channel between Dover and Dunkirk and on the Irish Sea (between Liverpool and Belfast & Liverpool and Dublin) and over 1.2 million freight movements were completed.
In July 2010, DFDS acquired Norfolkline; The Norfolkline routes and vessels were integrated into DFDS Seaways. [1]
Activities started in 1961 when Dutch entrepreneur Mr. L. Remeeus founded Norfolk Lijn N.V. He operated two coasters on a regular cargo service between Great Yarmouth and Scheveningen. The first appearance of the company in the ferry business was made possible when the roll-on/roll-off vessel Duke of Holland was acquired in 1969. Mr. Remeeus sold Norfolk Lijn N.V. to Unilever in 1973 and the company was renamed Norfolk Line in 1974.
The Company operated out of Great Yarmouth with "Duke of Holland and Duke of Norfolk", operations from Great Yarmouth commenced in 1969 and were finished by 1992, when nearby Felixstowe poached the business with Norfolkline in an aim to enhance the size of its fleet, which at the time Felixstowe could accommodate but Great Yarmouth couldn't.
The operations at Great Yarmouth were located at Atlas Terminal in the area of town known as South Denes. Norfolkline's UK head office was located at Atlas House (now demolished) whilst the operator had the entire Atlas Terminal quayside, a holding yard on the other side of the road as well as other facilities around the town. It is widely rumoured, that the town's outer harbour, which was first proposed around the 1960s/1970s was the main reason for the operator pulling the plug.[ citation needed ]
It is understood[ by whom? ] that Maersk wanted to hold an ownership in the new harbour and pay partly towards it, whilst also funding improvements to major road networks to the town including the A47 and A12 as well as partly funding a new river crossing. When the town and port authority rejected this proposal as well as the issue of capacity sizing which was soon outgrowing the town's river harbour and without the outer harbour it would have been falling behind, later Norfolkline moved to Felixstowe in 1992.
The Maersk Company Ltd, subsidiary of A.P. Møller acquired Norfolk Line in 1985.
The nineties started with the merger of Norfolk Line with rail transport specialist Skandi in 1995 introducing rail freight services to the company, followed by 4 new vessels that were added to the Norfolk Line fleet (1996) and the opening of a container route between Rotterdam (Holland) to Waterford (Ireland) in 1997. The year after that the company was renamed Norfolkline and the refrigerated transport business was launched in Belfast. A second refrigerated transport location was launched in 1999 in Larkhall.
In the new millennium, the ferry division expanded with the start of a ferry route from Dover (UK) to Dunkirk (France) in 2000. Five years later Norfolkline acquired Norse Merchant Ferries, a roll-on/roll-off ferry operator on Irish Sea routes. In 2006 a new roll-on/roll-off terminal in Vlaardingen was opened, launching a new route between Vlaardingen and Felixstowe/North Killingholme Haven.
Norfolkline's business was split in two divisions, a Logistics division and a Ferry division.
The logistics division was focused on tailor made solutions through different industries. Norfolkline operated logistics services providing refrigerated transportation of goods by road, rail, and sea from locations across Europe with routes from/to Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Norfolkline operated passenger and freight ferry services on the English Channel, the Irish Sea and the North Sea. Norfolkline's North Sea services carried freight only, whereas all other routes carried both lorry freight and private vehicles. Norfolkline also carried foot passengers on some of their North Sea services. Norfolkline's ferry routes were as follows:
Staff of Norfolkline Larkhall raised money for Cash for Kids, [2] a Scottish charity. ].[ citation needed ] The company sponsored the Liverpool Irish Festival 2008. [3] Norfolkline Irish Sea has provided financial support for Action Renewables. [4]
Norfolkline reduced their carbon footprint by investing in environmental friendly resources, such as their recent investment of refrigerated trailers which are 92% recyclable. [5]
Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Finland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major unit of Stena AB, itself a part of the Stena Sphere.
DFDS is a Danish international shipping and logistics company. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab. DFDS was founded in 1866, when C.F. Tietgen merged the three biggest Danish steamship companies of that day.
Superfast Ferries is a Greece-based ferry company founded in 1993 by Pericles Panagopulos and Alexander Panagopulos. Superfast Ferries is a member of Attica Group and operates 5 car-passenger ferries, offering daily connections between Ancona and Bari in Italy, and Patras and Igoumenitsa in Greece. Together with Blue Star Ferries, Africa Morocco Link, ANEK Lines and Hellenic Seaways, it is a subsidiary company of Attica Group, which is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.
DFDS Seaways is a Danish shipping company that operates passenger and freight services across northern Europe. Following the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010, DFDS restructured its other shipping divisions into the previously passenger-only operation of DFDS Seaways.
The Tor Line was a freight shipping company. Together with its subsidiaries, the Tor Line operated a fleet of approximately 65 ro-ro, ro-pax and lo-lo ships, primarily on the North and Baltic Seas. It was ultimately purchased by Denmark-based DFDS, which renamed it DFDS Tor Line, and it operated as a freight-carrying division of DFDS along with DFDS Lisco, DFDS Lys Line and DFDS Container Line before retiring the brand.
MSStena Scandica is a RoPax ferry, owned by Stena Line and it operates on the Baltic Sea between Nynäshamn, Sweden and Ventspils, Latvia.
Norse Merchant Ferries was an Irish Sea ferry company that operating passenger and freight RORO services between England the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The MS Finbo Cargo is a roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry that was previously called the European Endeavour which was owned and operated by P&O Ferries until May 2019. Eckerö Line purchased the ship from P&O in 2019 and is expected to take delivery in June 2019 and renamed her MS Finbo Cargo.
MS Stena Baltica is a RoPax ferry, owned by Stena Line and operates on the Baltic Sea between Nynäshamn, Sweden and Ventspils, Latvia. The ship previously operated on the Irish Sea, between Birkenhead and Belfast, as Stena Mersey.
Delft Seaways is a ro-pax ferry owned and operated by DFDS Seaways. She is one of three sister ships designed for the cross-Channel route from Dover to Dunkerque, capable of making the crossing in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Delft Seaways is a Scandinavian designed ship built at the Samsung shipyards in South Korea in 2005. She sails under the flag of the United Kingdom and her port of registry is Dover.
The MV Ippotis was a roll-on/roll-off ferry owned and operated by Eptanisos Maritime on the Ibiza–Barcelona route.
The Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry service was a freight-only service operated by DFDS. The service replaced a passenger and freight service that was initially operated by Superfast Ferries between May 2002 and September 2008, and then by Norfolkline from 18 May 2009 until 15 December 2010. It was the only direct ferry route between Scotland and Continental Europe. On 20 August 2010 it was announced that the passenger service would end on 15 December 2010, although the freight-only service resumed shortly thereafter. The service was terminated in 2018 following a fire aboard one of the ships.
Pelagos is a RoPax ferry owned and operated by French shipping company La Méridionale. The vessel is named after a marine conservation area surrounding Corsica.
Transport in East Anglia consists of extensive road and rail networks as well as one of England's key regional airports and the country's busiest container port. Despite having very little motorway within their borders, the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire have modern transport links with the rest of the country.
MS Blue Carrier 1 is a ro-ro ferry built in 2000 for Norfolkline BV and now operates in the Aegean Sea for Blue Star Ferries.
MS Stena Scotia is a freight ferry owned by Stena and operated by the ferry company Stena Line. She operates on the route that links Heysham with Belfast. She was built in 1996 at the Miho Shipyards in Japan as the Maersk Exporter for Norfolkline. In 2010, she was renamed as the Scotia Seaways when DFDS Seaways acquired Norfolkline and took over all of its operations. Later that year, she was chartered to Stena Line where she was repainted and again renamed, this time as the Stena Scotia, and re-flagged to the Isle of Man. She has three sister ships, Stena Hibernia, Flandria Seaways and Anglia Seaways. She can only accommodate 12 passengers, but provides 1,692 lane-metres.
Strait Feronia is a passenger, freight and vehicle or ROPAX ferry owned and operated by StraitNZ as part of its Bluebridge subsidiary. The ship is a twin of MS Liverpool Seaways. The vessel was initially named Mersey Viking and saw service in the Irish Sea, eventually being renamed Dublin Viking and then Dublin Seaways. The vessel was acquired by the Stena Line and renamed Stena Feronia and saw service between Tangier and Algericas and later between Kiel and Gothenburg.
Dover Seaways is a Ro-Ro passenger ferry owned by DFDS Seaways and operated between Dover and Dunkerque. The ship was built for Norfolkline and was operated as Maersk Dover from 2006 to 2010 between Dover and Dunkerque.
The D-class ferries are a trio of RoRo ferries built by Samsung Heavy Industries between 2003 and 2006 and operated by DFDS Seaways. They were originally operated by Norfolkline, and sail between Dover, United Kingdom and Dunkerque, France.