The company’s bid for the passenger and freight service is being submitted by Shetland Line (1984) Ltd, one of the original Streamline group companies. Shetland Line is probably best known for its twice weekly container service which is operated under contract to Government. But there is much more to the business than the shipping element. The Group turns over £18m per annum and has international and UK freight forwarding divisions, haulage, stevedoring, craning and heavy lift services as well as door-door parcel distribution and ships’agency services.
Acting Managing Director Gareth Crichton said “the Streamline Group is growing all the time. We have close to 200 staff across the country including our most recent acquisition, Lincs Forwarding Ltd, in Grimsby. With our handling of the Eimskip Norway services and freight teams in Glasgow and Aberdeen, we are well placed to keep cargo flowing to and from Orkney and Shetland every week.”
Crichton continued, “We have not entered the competition for the roro services lightly. We have been planning for this for over two years now and believe that we have both a robust bid and a strong implementation team should we be successful in our quest. We know the passenger, freight and livestock requirements very well and have good contacts locally who we know will keep us on the right track in meeting the islands’ needs. Certainly we believe we can protect and enhance the service while at the same time delivering significant savings to the public purse. Given the condition of the country’s budgets at the moment we are hopeful that this will count for something. Some would say the involvement of a local commercial operator is long overdue.”
