Latest news with #PeterHebblethwaite
Times
05-07-2025
- Business
- Times
P&O Ferries scraps Teesside to Zeebrugge service after 30 years
P&O Ferries is to scrap a ferry service between northeast England and Zeebrugge that has been running for more than 30 years. The operator is understood to have exercised a break clause in its contract to run ferries between Teesside and the Belgian port. The decision was taken at the end of June and the last sailing on the route is due to take place in mid-August. P&O Ferries is understood to have been operating services between Teesport and Zeebrugge since the 1990s. The move follows P&O's sailings between Teesport and Rotterdam being axed in 2023. The change will mean that P&O, once one of the biggest ferry operators in the UK, will soon run just three routes from the UK: Dover-Calais, Hull-Rotterdam, and Cairnryan in Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland. • P&O bosses shared £15m after sacking 800 crew P&O sparked a national outcry in 2022 by sacking nearly 800 seafarers and replacing them with low-paid agency staff. Owned by Dubai logistics firm DP World, bosses controversially pressed ahead with the cost-cutting move to balance the books and compete with rivals that had similarly opted to staff ships with agency seafarers. Peter Hebblethwaite, the chief executive, later admitted to a parliamentary committee that P&O had broken the law by opting for mass redundancies without consultation. 'I completely throw our hands up, my hands up, that we did choose not to consult,' he said. A spokesman for P&O said: 'The closure of the Zeebrugge-Teesport route facilitates our North Sea strategy to focus on and invest in a strategic, flexible and differentiated network. This will not affect any P&O Ferries employees. The deployment of the Norbay [ferry] is currently under review. • P&O claims it has saved 3,000 jobs and rescued the company 'We are excited about the arrival of the Lismore [another ferry] into our fleet later in the year, bringing greater capacity and efficiency for our customers. ' P&O's exit may come as a blow to the Teesport owner PD Ports, which is owned by the Canadian infrastructure giant Brookfield. PD Ports declined to comment. PD Ports was put back on the market last year after an aborted sale in 2021. Brookfield is said to have slapped a £2 billion price tag on the business as it seeks to sell a 50 per cent stake. Sources insisted that underlying demand for ferry services had not diminished and PD Ports was confident that another operator would step in to fill the void at Teesport. Rival Peel Ports, which had previously registered an interest in bidding for PD Ports, has reportedly bowed out of the process.
Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Times
P&O chief took pay rise in year after sacking 800 workers
The remuneration of the chief executive of P&O Ferries increased in the year after the sacking of almost 800 mainly British workers, accounts Hebblethwaite received £715,000 from the Dubai-owned group in 2023 despite heavy losses, a row over workers being paid less than the UK minimum wage and claims he made before parliament that he was being paid substantially latest available accounts for P&O Ferries for the year to the end of December 2023, posted months late at Companies House, show that the company, best known for its operations on the crossing between Dover and Calais, lost £97 million on top of the £249 million it was in deficit in 2022. • Boris Johnson backs calls for P&O Ferries boss to quit The accounts also show that Hebblethwaite, 54, was paid £683,000 in the year, plus £32,000 of company-paid contributions into his pension pot. That is substantially more than the £440,000 paid to his predecessor in the job and more than the amount he disclosed to the business and trade select committee of the House of Commons. He told MPs who were questioning him about the mass dismissal in March 2022 that he was on a salary of £325,000 and that he had received a bonus of £183,000, a payment that he recognised would be seen as controversial. At that testy hearing Hebblethwaite was accused of being 'a pirate' who was 'robbing staff blind' after the decision to sack nearly 800 mainly British workers and put the remaining workforce on international seafarer agency contracts not covered by the UK's national minimum wage laws under which pay started at £5.20 an hour. At the time the national minimum wage in the UK was £11.44 an hour. P&O Ferries has been owned since 2006 by the Dubai royal family led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, best known in the UK for his extensive bloodstock and horseracing interests. P&O Ferries is now part of Dubai Ports World, whose other interests in the UK include the London Gateway port on the Thames and the port of Southampton. In a statement, P&O Ferries said: 'These results show the progress we're making in transforming the business. Losses are down and financial performance is improving. Our focus on high-quality experience is driving growth across both tourism and freight, with more people choosing to travel with us and satisfaction scores rising. We're matching capacity to meet demand, and continue to invest in greener, more efficient vessels.'
ITV News
03-07-2025
- Business
- ITV News
Pay jumps 55% for P&O boss as ferry company posts loss of £91 million
The earnings of the boss of P&O Ferries soared in 2023, a year in which the company continued to be heavily loss-making. The much-delayed annual accounts have been filed to Companies House and will soon be published, but have been seen by ITV News and the Guardian. The accounts show that P&O lost £91.4 million before tax during 2023, down from £246 million the year before. Peter Hebblethwaite, the chief executive, was paid £683,000 - representing an increase of at least 55% on the earnings of P&O's highest-paid director in 2022. The rise in Hebblethwaite's pay is likely to fuel renewed anger, coming just a year after P&O sacked 786 crew without notice and replaced them with cheaper agency workers paid as little as £4.87 an hour. The financial accounts of P&O Ferries Division Holdings Limited show Hebblethwaite's earnings were higher than the amounts he disclosed to MPs last May. Hebblethwaite told the Business and Trade parliamentary select committee that he earned a £325,000 salary, plus a bonus of £183,000 for 2023. During his appearance, MPs asked if he was 'a pirate' who appeared to be 'robbing staff blind'. Hebblethwaite told MPs: 'I reflected on accepting that [bonus]. But ultimately I did decide to accept it.' He added: 'I do recognise it is not a decision that everyone would have made." P&O Ferries sacked its mainly British crews in March 2022 in order to cut its costs and avoid bankruptcy, but the company still lost money in 2023. In a note, accompanying the accounts, P&O's directors say the company 'has been on a transformational journey, as it has progressed its recovery from the challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the impact of the disruption caused by the change in the crewing model.' The company carried 4.5 million passengers in 2023, an increase on the year before when its service was disrupted by the sackings and the subsequent detention of some of its ships by the authorities. In 2019, P&O carried 7.7 million passengers. Freight volumes also remain well below pre-pandemic levels. The accounts state that P&O 'is not seeing the [freight] market growth it had previously predicted' and says 'recessionary pressures' are in part to blame. In adversity, P&O Ferries continues to rely on its owner, DP World, to stay in business. DP World - a company from Dubai that runs ports and shipping terminals around the world - has provided a letter of support, indicating a willingness to continue to fund P&O's losses. P&O is not currently repaying interest on a £295 million loan from DP World - instead the debt is accumulating. And there has been a sharp increase of lease liabilities to £241 million in 2023, compared with £14.5 million the previous year. P&O's accounts are nine months late, prompting MPs to question the company's viability, and are signed off by Just Audit & Assurance - a tiny four-person audit-firm that replaced KPMG, the accounting giant that resigned in March. The accounts were already overdue when Just Audit & Assurance were appointed. 'These delayed accounts are still incomplete. They also suggest P&O Ferries is in deep financial trouble,' said Professor Atul Shah of City University. He added: 'As a Limited Liability company which is of significant public interest to Britain, P&O Ferries can only continue trading because DP World is willing to underwrite its still considerable losses. That is a highly precarious situation to be in for most stakeholders.' Despite ongoing losses, P&O maintains that it is on a path to recovery, but its wage bill will have risen significantly in 2024. A change in the law in France and the UK now compels all ferry operators to pay the minimum wage to crews on the cross-channel routes. In its accounts, P&O says, 'We are unequivocally committed to adhering to the legal requirements of applicable national and international laws.' A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: 'These results show the progress we're making in transforming the business. Losses are down and financial performance is improving. "Our focus on high-quality experience is driving growth across both tourism and freight, with more people choosing to travel with us and satisfaction scores rising. We're matching capacity to meet demand, and continue to invest in greener, more efficient vessels. 'Our accounts are prepared in accordance with relevant accounting standards and subject to independent audit in line with auditing standards.'
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
P&O Ferries boss got pay rise of at least 55% after firing almost 800 workers
The boss of P&O Ferries was paid £683,000 in the financial year after the cross-Channel operator outraged the public and parliament by dismissing almost 800 mainly British workers. The windfall, revealed in much delayed 2023 accounts seen by the Guardian and ITV News that report more than £90m of annual losses, represents a pay rise of at least 55% for Peter Hebblethwaite, who was the company's highest-paid director. The top pay package in 2022 of £440,000 was earned by a former P&O Ferries board member. Hebblethwaite told a parliamentary select committee last year that his salary was £325,000, and he had received a bonus in 2023 of £183,000. He was asked during the appearance if he was 'a pirate' who appeared to be 'robbing staff blind'. 'I reflected on accepting that payment, but ultimately I did decide to accept it,' he told MPs about the bonus at the time. 'I do recognise it is not a decision that everybody would have made.' The pay rise, which suggests Hebblethwaite's total remuneration may have included elements not mentioned in his testimony to parliament, is likely to be viewed as controversial coming after P&O Ferries sacked 786 staff in 2022 and replaced them with low-paid agency workers who received considerably less than the UK minimum wage. Hebblethwaite confirmed to MPs during last year's session that the group's lowest-paid seafarers had been receiving 'fully consolidated hourly pay [of] about £4.87'. Two months before making that disclosure, the company had distanced itself from that rate, telling the Guardian and ITV News: 'We do not recognise the [£4.87-an-hour] pay rates that you are referencing. No member of our crew on our Dover-Calais vessels earns less than £2,400 per month, equivalent to £5.20 per hour.' Hebblethwaite's pay package emerged in accounts that are expected to be published by Companies House in the coming days, but are already nine months late. The figures – the first to be signed off by a tiny four-person auditing firm that replaced KPMG, the 'big four' accountant that resigned in March – show that the company lost £91.4m before tax in 2023, a considerable improvement on the £249.4m losses in 2022. Hebblethwaite has long argued that P&O Ferries would have gone bust had it not made the 2022 sackings and started paying the overseas agency workers much lower rates. The accounts state that it transported 4.6 million passengers in 2023, a 45% reduction on the 8.4 million carried in 2018. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion When Hebblethwaite addressed MPs last year, the UK minimum wage was £11.44 an hour, but the rates did not apply to maritime workers employed by an overseas agency who work on foreign-registered ships in international waters. P&O uses that model, so the pay onboard its vessels was legal. Since then, the UK and France have introduced legislation intended to secure minimum-wage rates for seafarers, which is expected to increase P&O Ferries' costs. The operator said it was 'unequivocally committed to adhering to the legal requirements of applicable national and international laws'. A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: 'These results show the progress we're making in transforming the business. Losses are down and financial performance is improving. Our focus on high-quality experience is driving growth across both tourism and freight, with more people choosing to travel with us and satisfaction scores rising. We're matching capacity to meet demand, and continue to invest in greener, more efficient vessels. 'Our accounts are prepared in accordance with relevant accounting standards and subject to independent audit in line with auditing standards.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
P&O Ferries hires four-man firm after accounting fiasco
P&O Ferries has hired a four-person accountancy firm as its auditor after KPMG quit the account abruptly this year. Just Audit & Assurance, which describes itself as 'a specialist firm created to address the specialist needs of the smaller company and charity audits', will audit the ferry operator's accounts, which are overdue. Experts said the decision to appoint such a small auditor raised potential concerns over the financial health and governance standards of P&O Ferries. Atul Shah, a professor of accounting at City St George's, University of London, said: 'This is pure and simple opinion shopping, something which a public interest and regulated profession should strongly and publicly reprimand.' Notably, large corporations almost always use larger and more established firms to audit their accounts owing to the complexity of the work involved and the scale of the work required. Just Audit & Assurance, is based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and has just two partners and a total of four staff, according to Companies House filings. Of all the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index, just one used an accountancy firm outside of the 'big four' – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – to audit their accounts last year, Financial Reporting Council data show. P&O Ferries, which is owned by the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant DP World, was already months late in filing its financial statements for 2023 when KPMG quit as auditor in March, having worked with the company since 2007. Commenting on its resignation at the time, KPMG said it was 'not possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable'. In a letter outlining its decision, KPMG said it believed it would be unable to audit the accounts in a timely manner as 'some of the drivers of that delay remain'. It comes following a torrid few years for P&O Ferries after it was attacked for sacking almost 800 seafarers via text message and replacing them with cheaper staff. Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O's chief executive, later admitted that he deliberately chose to ignore trade unions during the process, leading Labour to introduce legislation to protect jobs and wages in the maritime sector. Last year, the company's owner DP World clashed with the Government after Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, called it a 'rogue operator'. Sir Keir Starmer disowned Ms Haigh's comments, declaring they were 'not the view of the Government', after DP World pulled out of a Labour-backed investment summit. Jonathan Russell, partner at Audit & Assurance said: 'Just because we're a small audit firm, it doesn't mean we'll do an inferior job.' He said he expects to charge lower fees than KPMG, at about £265,000. He said that alongside his four full-time employees, he also has access to 35 freelancers. P&O Ferries and KPMG declined to comment. Sign in to access your portfolio
