No more Ferries - Hurrah!

[oilyrag]

Following the recent acquisition of Ferryways by their arch-rivals Cobelfret, all ferry sailings to Ipswich have been cancelled and Ferryways made bankrupt. Peace and quiet will reign supreme on the Orwell once more! Thanks Mr Cobelfret!

 

[Rustyknight]

I'm sure all the guys working for the company are celebrating too......

 

[oilyrag]

Why do you think I am sitting here with nothing better to do?

 

[Mudhook]

I have to say I rather liked the ferries coming past my mooring in the middle of the night. What a shame they won't be running any more. I have to say they've all looked a bit empty in recent months.

Regards, Mudhook

 

[jezjez]

No more: Bloody hell what's that! from innocents and forgetful seniors on the river.

 

[oilyrag]

Don't worry Mudhook, they will be back soon in a shiny new livery.
It's just better for the new owners, before they move their own people in, to bankrupt Ferryways in order to sack all the Ferryways staff so they do not have pay them a bean by way of unpaid salaries or redundancy money.
Of course the good old British taxpayer will now pick up the bill.

 

[Koeketiene]

1. It would seem that previous management nicked all the silver before the sale to Cobelfret. Fraud investigation underway.
2. Ferryways was a Belgian registered company (as is Cobelfret) - UK taxpayer not out of pocket.

 

[oilyrag]

Wrong and wrong
The Ferryways NV management were unaware of the sale. It was concluded in camera between the Ferryways shareholders and Cobelfret before being announced publicly on 4th June. Ferryways management were only informed on 1st June.
After the sale had been announced, Cobelfret transferred the only real assets Ferryways had, the 4 ro-ro ferries actually owned by Ferryways with a book value of something like GBP30Million, to a sister company leaving nothing of any asset value in Ferryways.

How can a giant company like Cobelfret buy a comparative minnow like Ferryways only to find out after the event that "da management had nicked all da silver" - are they stupid or what?? Have you never heard of due diligence?

Ferryways (UK) Ltd was a UK registered company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ferryways NV. The UK taxpayer WILL pay the unpaid salaries and redundancy for the UK staff who were summarily dismissed yesterday by the Administrator.

Very laudable of you to stick up for the scumbags but please get your facts straight first.

 

[Koeketiene]

1. From what I had heard, it's Ferryways NV wot went tits up
2. As to facts/sources

http://www.vrtnieuws.net/cm/vrtnieuws.net/nieuws/regionaal/West-Vlaanderen/070614_Ferryways_Update

http://www.vrtnieuws.net/cm/vrtnieuws.net/nieuws/regionaal/West-Vlaanderen/070615_Ferryways_Vaart

http://www.vrtnieuws.net/cm/vrtnieuws.net/nieuws/regionaal/West-Vlaanderen/1.140157

According to the second link, sailings should resume on Monday.

 

[oilyrag]

1) Exactly - facts come from those who know, not hear them, and certainly not from any newspaper I have ever read.
2) I wonder who issued the press releases , let me think, was it Cobelfret per chance? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Habebty]

I don't know why, but I liked the Ferryways boats, perhaps it was that they were a small company. Full sympathies to the staff and crews affected by the apparent crappy treatment by Cobelfret.
I always thought it was a shame I couldn't use this service with a car or as a foot passenger. I know they were freight oriented but I'm not bothered about being entertained on a ferry.

 

[alec]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know why, but I liked the Ferryways boats, perhaps it was that they were a small company. Full sympathies to the staff and crews affected by the apparent crappy treatment by Cobelfret.
I always thought it was a shame I couldn't use this service with a car or as a foot passenger. I know they were freight oriented but I'm not bothered about being entertained on a ferry.

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually rang them up once to try and take me and my car to Ostend. Unfortunately they said their insurance would not cover it.

I felt their skippers were VERY understanding of yachts that got in their way and understood that we never look behind ourselves .

I just imagined for a moment this situation happening if Ferryways was a French company.

Larf ! thought me Y Fronts would never dry out !

 

[castaway]

2 1/2 years ago the company I worked for Swissport UK Ltd pulled a similar stunt. The 1000 or so staff turned up for work one morning to find that the owners a bunch of city shites called Candover had put the Operation in the UK ( Swissport UK) in to liquidation whilst keeping the more profitable Swissport International and thrown the lot of us onto the street.

The really sick part was that having ensured that none of the employees got a penny from the UK company they then went ahead and sold the 'International' side off for I think it was £65 million.

Some of us had been associated with the company as they played pass the parcel with us for over 20 years and recieved only the government basic minimum redundancy.

Apparently it could only happen in the UK.

Nick

 

[oilyrag]

The ferries did initially take the odd car/caravan but this was stopped by the Belgian Immigration service - bit complicated but basically all to do with Schengen, not anyone's fault until you start blaming the politicians...

 

[oilyrag]

Whenever I got a chance, I would take the ferry captains sailing so they could see how things are from our perspective. Most of them were Romanian and had never had the opportunity to sail on a small yacht. On one occasion several years ago, I allowed a captain to almost sail us into the path of an outbound freighter that he had not seen- he learned a valauable lesson that day and obviously imparted his experience to his fellow captains.
They are all really good guys and it is a crying shame what has been allowed to happen.

 

[Chris_Robb]

or pensions

 

[CH1PS]

Not for long, they will be back, soon to be 6 a day, 4 from Belgium and 2 from Holland. Long live Ferryways!

 

[Koeketiene]

Shhh... don't wake him.
He'll tell you not to believe newspapers or press releases. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[oilyrag]

s'ok, I'm awake but I have been rather busy today selling off my Father's Day gifts in order to buy food for next week.
Of course, now that we know we should not disbelieve the Cobelfret press releases, I, and dozens of my fellow oiks, appreciate this whole situation is of our own making and that we should remain in our place and not complain of our plight.
my 'umble apologies guv'nor.

 

[Koeketiene]

It's all right, I accept your most humble apologies /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Just would like to point out that what I said, before you jumped all over me, was true.

1. It is Ferryways NV what went tits up (knock on effect for the UK branch) - otherwise why would a Belgian court appoint 3 curators to "look after the shop"?
2. I said that sailings would resume at the start of next week, this also seems to be true.
3. The links I provided are from the Belgian Public Radio/TV - I may be naive, but I would think that in this case, they do their own reporting. No reference to Cobelfret press releases was made.

When Ferryways resumes operations, I hope that you will also regain your job (if indeed you lost it).