RETAILERS have warned that rising freight costs under Jersey’s new ferry arrangements are forcing them to find hundreds of thousands of pounds to balance their budgets – with Morrison’s alone facing a shortfall of up to £400,000.
At an Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny hearing yesterday morning, representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the Channel Islands Co-operative, Sandpiper, Alliance and Morrison’s said they had “zero involvement” in the process that saw DFDS replace Condor as the Island’s freight operator for the next 20 years in March.
DFDS, however, has argued that it had met supermarket representatives before the new service began and made “a number of changes in response to their feedback”.
The company said it was maintaining “reliable and efficient freight links” for Jersey and that fewer than 4% of sailings had been cancelled since it took over the contract – mostly during periods of severe weather.
During the hearing, Morrison’s operations director Andrew Holmes said the switch to DFDS, coupled with new freight and port charges, had increased costs by 6.1% between January and June 2025.
“Now we’re going to have to start to look for another £300,000 to £400,000 within our budget to deliver the baseline profit for the business,” he said. “It’s going to be a very challenging situation to be able to find that money.”
Mr Holmes added that reliability remained a “big question”, noting that Condor had more experience operating into Jersey ports.
“It doesn’t give us any confidence for when the weather gets worse,” he said before claiming that Morrison’s frozen products were regularly left behind on UK docks.
Retailers also told the panel that inconsistent sailing times, freight cancellations and the decision to give Jersey and Guernsey separate operators were all adding to costs, which were forcing prices up for consumers.
Mark Cox, chief executive of the Channel Islands Co-operative, said the lack of consultation before the contract was awarded was “disappointing”, contrasting it with Guernsey’s approach of inviting retailers to take part in discussions before choosing to continue with Condor.
Mr Cox added that separating the islands’ operators meant goods could no longer move directly between Jersey and Guernsey. “The cost of that has increased 40% because it has to go via the UK,” he said.
He also warned that the MV Arrow “can’t cope in unseasonal weather”, with Co-op logging around ten freight cancellations to Jersey compared with just two to Guernsey.
Retailers agreed that communication from both DFDS and government had been poor, though they welcomed news that a redacted version of the DFDS concession agreement is due to be published this month.
Responding, DFDS said the replacement of freight vessel Arrow with Trader had “enabled further improvements to freight schedules, reducing volatility in departure and arrival times”.
“DFDS does not agree that there are regular delays of four or five days,” a spokesperson said. “While there were some isolated issues during recent periods of severe weather, when Arrow temporarily covered for Trader during maintenance, these were limited.”
The Danish operator added that retailers were not direct DFDS customers, with freight arranged through forwarding firms such as Ferryspeed, and that it remained in “regular contact” with those companies.
It also said flat-rate charges were “a requirement of the government’s tender process and would have applied regardless of which operator was appointed”.
