Ferry reliability biggest need for businesses

The vast majority of goods - about 98% - are brought to the island by sea

Running a business in an island, means companies have to build extra resilience into their services.

On Wednesday, Guernsey selected Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder to operate its sea links for the next 15 years.

We spoke to Guernsey businesses that depend on a ferry operator for their views.

'Running out of stock'

Car garages across the Channel Islands have seen delays to the import of cars

Customers in the islands have been left waiting months to receive new cars.

In August, car dealerships in both Guernsey and Jersey were told by Condor Ferries that only 15 cars a day could be imported to the islands. Previously there had been no limit imposed by the company.

Peter Beausire, joint managing director of Le Mont Saint Garage, said it had been a "struggle" as they would normally import 15 cars a month and the change meant "the garage was running out of stock".

"We have taken delivery of a few cars this week but before then we hadn't taken delivery of cars since the middle of August.

"The main struggle for us is not only having a lack of cars, but customers that were expecting their cars in August just weren't here, and now we are into October and the cars have just started to arrive."

'Reliability is key'

Jamie Blondel said customers wanted a reliable service from a ferry company

"Reliability is the key thing that everybody is after," according to director of World Travel, Jamie Blondel.

He said passengers were accepting of sailings being postponed because of bad weather but communication was key to customers.

Mr Blondel would like to see a regular sailing route established between the islands.

"Over the summer there was maybe a period of three or four days where there might not be a ferry service between Guernsey and Jersey, which you'd think during the summer would be fairly frequent.

"A lot of people that come over here are quite surprised that there isn't more frequency of that sailing."

Stock is king

Jim Le Lievre said he had to allow for bad weather and for shipping problems

Jim Le Lievre, managing director at builders' merchant CDS, would welcome more regular sailings to the islands.

He said the company must order in large quantities because if the boats do not turn up, then "you've got nothing to sell".

"If we could get more shipments we could reduce our stockholding. We have to allow for bad weather, for problems for shipping and hence why our stock is as it is.

"If you compared us to an English merchant, I'd think we have got double the amount of stock because we have to allow for that because we would run out."

'Regular shipments'

Alex Argo wants his furniture to arrive on time to ensure customer delivery dates are met

Alex Argo has been the store manager at Ideal Furnishings for 20 years and wants to see "regular shipments" come into the island.

He said the company has a back up of goods at the ports in the UK waiting to come to Guernsey "and when it comes in we have to work that little bit harder to get the goods out".

Mr Argo said: "On a daily basis we need our furniture to come in. We can't be waiting an extra week, two weeks for our stuff to come in because that's an extra delay to the customer."

He would also like to see "a better price on shipment" because the increased cost of delivery "is coming to a point that it'll have to be passed onto the consumer".