Located in the heart of Perth with enviable transport links to the rest of the country, CalMac’s regeneration of the city’s harbour has not only commercially benefited the local area – but also set a precedent for future national opportunities.
CALEDONIAN MacBrayne is one of Scotland’s most evocative and easily identifiable companies. Its ferries serving the country’s west coast provide lifeline services, keep communities alive, and act as a magnet for tourists.
What is less well known and appreciated is that CalMac is also a commercial port enterprise, operating Perth Harbour as well as 26 other facilities in the west. It offers commercial services and is seeking to grow its business in this area.
CalMac Ferries Ltd, whose parent company is David MacBrayne Ltd and is also wholly owned by Scottish Ministers, has ambitious plans for the future, not least for the facility at Perth, which now handles more than 30,000 tonnes of cargo annually. Before it took over the management of the harbour in 2018 – it is still owned by Perth and Kinross Council - the harbour was only handling about 10,000 tonnes per year. “We put into our bid for the contract that we would regenerate the port”, explains Cameron MacPhail, CalMac’s Head of Ports and Harbours. “It sits in the middle of a city and we wanted to bring it back to life, which we have.”
The company, which is wholly owned by the Scottish Government, partners at the harbour with Invest in Perth, a division of the council that supports enterprise and growth, and another key player, Calport Limited. The organisations are all working together to support its growth.
What advantages can the port at Perth offer? “For a start, we are less than a mile from the Broxburn Roundabout on the edge of the city, which is the only one in Scotland that serves all seven cities”, Mr MacPhail says. This means, he adds, that the transportation links are second to none. “We are keen to look at sustainability and supporting a reduction in CO2 emissions, so it’s an advantage for us. It means that rather than having, say, a shipment of animal feed coming in and offloading at competitors before being moved up to Perth, it can be brought direct into the port. That reduces the number of articulated vehicles on the roads by about 50.”
CalMac is aiming to increase the visibility of the port – “a large part of the industry is unaware of our central location, as well as local awareness the asset is still handles commercial operations” – as it believes this will be a key driver. “And it’s not just for commercial use. We’re trying to look at all users, including those on the leisure side, and trying to support local organisations such as charity groups, the sea cadets, and the sailing and canoe clubs.”
CalMac carried out an economic impact assessment for the port and the wider region last year and discovered that it provides some £5.5 million of economic support along with accounting for 54 jobs locally.
“We’re looking at potential opportunities going forward, Mr MacPhail explains. “We’re trying to step away from the traditional cargoes we’ve handled – mainly timber – and we’re seeking out other things such as soya, animal feed and aggregates.
“We’re talking with agents and cargo owners. It would be fantastic to see our cargo double again there within the next two years.”
Perth Harbour can handle vessels of up to 100 metres in length with a draft of 4.2 metres, though the river is currently being dredged to remove sandbanks. “We’re regenerating it for the users. Another advantage we have is that ships can sail in on one tide and out on the next one.”
Cal Mac is also building its local community relations by handing out its Perth Harbour Community Fund awards in early April. These will support eight local groups in the region who use the harbour and surrounding area to promote health and wellbeing.
The company is also extremely active in its traditional operational area of Scotland’s west coast, where it is working to augment its lifeline ferry services by seeking out commercial opportunities in serving the islands.
“We’ve been looking at areas such as cruising. In 2019 – the last full year before the pandemic hit – we managed to increase our activity in this area up to 178 ships.
“We’ve had visits to locations such as Brodick on Arran and Largs in Ayrshire in the south up to Port Ellen on Islay and to Tarbert on Harris in the north.
“The average size of these has been 80 to 90 metres, but we’re now seeing larger expedition vessels of perhaps 130 to 140 metres. The largest one we’ve handled was at Port Ellen, which was 220 metres.”
Cal Mac is also looking to build up its cargo support business on the west coast, where it operates a total of 26 harbours. “This cargo may until now have come across on our ferries”, Mr MacPhail says, “but we are now looking at other opportunities.
“For instance at Brodick, one of our customers exports aggregates from Arran. As an alternative to putting 20 or 30 lorries on the regular sailing, we can handle one coaster, take the cargo and ship it off the island.”
Another industrial sector that is being examined by the company in the belief it will provide commercial opportunity is the offshore renewable market. “There is activity around Islay and we are looking there to see if we can potentially support an operational and maintenance base at Port Ellen.
“We are investigating if we can offer crew transfer vessel movements from some of our ports in order that the maintenance teams can move backwards and forwards from the mainland.
“We’re also examining the possibility of operating contracts, taking on additional ports and harbours across Scotland and the rest of the UK, seeing what opportunities there might be to build partnerships with the asset owners to operate the facilities and bring them back to speed. And then there’s commercial growth as well.”
All this, Mr MacPhail says, means that there are some exciting possibilities in terms of CalMac expanding its existing portfolio.
“While our shareholder is the Scottish Government, we are a commercial organisation, with an aspiration to expand our expertise and offering, assessing a wide range of commercial opportunities available.”
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