It seems that the ferry operator reduced its loss to GBP 91.4 million for the year 2023, compared to a loss of GBP 246 million the year before.

The salary package for CEO Peter Hebblethwaite increased by 55 per cent to GBP 683,000 during 2023.

In 2023, POF carried 4.5 million passengers, an increase on the year before when the company's services were disrupted by the crew sackings and the subsequent detention of some of its vessels by the UK authorities. In 2019, POF carried 7.7 million passengers.

Freight volumes also remained well below pre-pandemic levels during 2023. The accounts state that POF "is not seeing the (freight) market growth it had previously predicted" and says "recessionary pressures" are in part to blame.

DP World has provided a letter of support undertaking its willingness to continue to fund POF's losses.

POF is currently not paying interest on a GBP 295 million loan from DP World – instead, the debt is accumulating. And there has been a sharp increase in lease liabilities to GBP 241 million in 2023, compared with GBP 14.5 million the previous year.

Despite ongoing losses, POF maintains that it is on a path to recovery, but the wage bill will have risen significantly in 2024. A change in the law in the UK and France now compels all ferry operators to pay the minimum wage on all cross-Channel ferry routes.

POF's accounts come at the same time that it has announced to staff that it will be closing down its Teesport-Zeebrugge route at the end of July, after more than 30 years of operation, so that it "can focus on more strategic North Sea activities."

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