Private | |
Industry | Transport |
Founded | 2002 |
Headquarters | Dover, United Kingdom |
Key people
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Products |
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Parent | Dubai World |
Website | www |
Footnotes / references P&O House Flag |
P&O Ferries(Pronounced Puferries) is a British company that operates ferries from the United Kingdom to Ireland and Continental Europe (France, Belgium and the Netherlands). These were previously operated at different times as separate subsidiaries of P&O under the names Pandoro Ltd, P&O European Ferries, P&O Portsmouth, P&O North Sea Ferries, P&O Irish Sea and the joint venture P&O Stena Line.
P&O originally established ferry services in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s in the North Sea and the English Channel. In the late 1970s P&O was affected by a reduction in traditional shipping activities which saw the sale of a number of its businesses and assets. This continued into 1985 with the sale of its cross-channel ferry activities to European Ferries, which at the time consisted of services on the Dover–Boulogne and Southampton–Le Havre routes.
In January the following year, P&O purchased a 50.01% interest in European Financial Holdings Ltd, which held 20.8% of shares in European Ferries, followed in 1987 with the purchase of the remaining shares of the European Ferries Group whose ferry services were trading as Townsend Thoresen. Following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in March 1987, the operations of Townsend Thoresen were renamed P&O European Ferries on 22 October 1987, with operations from Portsmouth, Felixstowe and Dover.