Bay Ferries Sold
Jul 30th, 2007 by Brian Hurlburt
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Sorry no audio available
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The end of July 2007 marked a new dawn for the parent company of Bay Ferries and Northumberland Ferries which sold to four members of the company’s senior management team.
NFL Holdings Ltd. of Charlottetown, the parent of Bay Ferries Ltd., Northumberland Ferries Ltd. and Bay Ferries Management Ltd., was sold July 27 to new owners.
The new owners include Mark MacDonald, president and CEO; Donald Cormier, vice-president of operations and safety management; Danny Bartlett, vice-president of finance; and Gerard Stevenson, who is vice-president of technical services.
Bay Ferries owns and operates the Cat high-speed ferry between Yarmouth and Portland and Bar Harbor. as well as the ferry Princess of Acadia, between Digby and Saint John, under lease arrangements with the Canadian Government.
Northumberland Ferries operates two ferries between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Mr. MacDonald says; “that even though the ferry industry faces challenges, the new partnership believes the ferry businesses are the backbone of the economy and the transportation system, so it is going to be here to stay.”
The new owners are excited about their new commitments to Northumberland Ferries and Bay Ferries and look forward to continuing to build safe, strong and efficient ferry services wherever they do business.
The Digby / Saint John, Bay Ferries, run was recipient of $8 Million from the Federal and Nova Scotia / New Brunswick Governments last year when the Ferry Service announced that it had planned to end the service because of reduced traffic flows and higher fuel costs.
Recent work done to the ship and the introduction of a number of initiatives to try and enhance customer experience has been well-publicized.
Mr. MacDonald, with renewed vigor, points out that the Digby / Saint John service is doing well this summer citing a new program that reduced the number of sailings in an attempt to match capacity with demand.
The commercial side of things continues to be the biggest challenge to the Digby / Saint John crossing due to the disappearance of the forest industry which used to be one of the backbones of the service.
Under the government-funding arrangement, the company has to maintain at least a minimal service level.
Although Mr. MacDonald does admit that anytime this type of transaction occurs there are always things to look at they don’t foresee any major changes taking place at this point.
We at YarmouthCounty.com want to welcome the new owners of Bay Ferries to the helm and wish them all the best while encouraging them always to recognize the importance and long term necessity of maintaining our ferry services.
(Even perhaps getting a real year round ferry for the Yarmouth run)
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For YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!
Sincerely,
Brian Hurlburt
customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com
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