WESTERN Ferries (Clyde), the company that operates the Gourock-to-Dunoon ferry service, has revealed plans to invest several million pounds in upgrading quayside infrastructure, as new accounts show profits dipped marginally in its last financial year.

The privately owned business has been holding talks with Jim McColl’s Ferguson Marine as it moves to line up a contractor to put new berthing structures and link spans in place at McInroy’s Point on the Gourock side, and Hunter’s Quay in Dunoon.

Western Ferries has two berthing structures and link spans on either side of the crossing, having enlisted Ferguson to work on the first two upgrades when the shipyard was under previous ownership in 2006 and 2007. It hopes to complete the latest work by the autumn of this year.

Managing director Gordon Ross unveiled the plans as the latest accounts for Western Ferries show that the company booked a pre-tax profit of £2.6 million in year ended March 31, compared with £2.7m the year before. Turnover at the company, which operates 32,000 crossings a year, rose by 1.6 per cent to £7.86m.

Operating expenditure over the period rose to £5.3m from £5m in 2015, which reflects the investment made to refurbish the passenger lounges in the two vessels it acquired from Ferguson in 2001 and 2003.

Mr Ross said Western was now seeing the benefits of the two most recent vessels it acquired for a total of £8m from Cammell Laird in 2013. “It was a good solid year, he said. “Our reliability works out at about 99.8 per cent. We have just gone through two periods of inclement weather, therefore to achieve a 99.8 per cent figure [for] reliability is a very, very strong performance. It is testament to the vessels and the professionalism of the crew.”

He added: “On the revenue side, it’s a mature business. The traffic numbers are steady but we still have the capacity to accept more business.”