The Orcadian Features - Terry Cairns

Disappointment for boss as he sells ships a second time
(From The Orcadian dated October 3, 2002)

P&O Scottish Ferries managing director Terry Cairns, who has been at the helm of the company for the past ten years.

When Terry Cairns took over the helm of P&O Scottish Ferries in 1992, his first task was to sell off the former St Ola and St Clair ships before getting on with the business of running a service to the Northern Isles.

Ten years later, he’s found himself doing the same job – selling ships – but this time round it’ll be one of his last acts with the company.

The P&O Scottish Ferries fleet comprising St Ola, St Sunniva, St Clair and St Rognvald is being sold off as part of the company’s winding down process.

Looking back on a career with P&O, spanning 15 years, Mr Cairns expressed obvious disappointment over the outcome of the Northern Isles contract, which saw P&O losing out to newcomer, NorthLink – who took over the service on Tuesday.

But despite the ups and downs – and he readily admits relationships between Orkney and P&O have not always been easy – Mr Cairns says he’ll take away with him the warmth and friendliness of the local people.

Born in Glasgow, Mr Cairns went to sea at the age of 17 and spent 20 years all over the world, eight of them as a captain, serving on a whole range of vessels from crude to cargo carriers.

“I went to sea in 1965 and left in 1985 and joined a Norwegian company called Ugland Brothers in London – a ship management company, which was rapidly expanding,” he recalled.

After a stay in London, his job took him to Egham, Surrey, until 1987 when he joined P&O Ferries in Dover as nautical manager.

Two years later and he was promoted to fleet operations director, based in Portsmouth, responsible for four large passenger ferries and a freighter sailing across the Channel. At that time there were five or six sailings a day.

His return to Scotland came in March, 1992, when he got the job as managing director of P&O Scottish Ferries.

Over the last decade he says has witnessed a steady increase in business – the passenger numbers levelling out recently, though, due to competition from Pentland Ferries.

“There was a steady increase throughout the years I have been here – certainly the freight to Shetland. I think one of the major things I remember is when the St Clair first came in, there was talk about her leaning in the wind. The problems were resolved once and for all, though, when new stabilisers were fitted in the 1990s.

“If you operate a ferry service, air service or other, you will have the odd technical problem or people do not like something. You never please everyone, but, generally, we have proved that we are pretty reliable,” he said.

Someone in Shetland once summed it up when he told Mr Cairns that you could always rely on the blue ship being there when it was needed.

“One thing I will take away with me is the warmth of the people. Although we have not always had an amicable relationship with Orkney in particular, the people I have met have always been full of generosity.”

Commenting on the loss of the contract he said: “It is a disappointment. Someone said to me once, as the operator of the service you are at a disadvantage. You know exactly how much it costs, but someone coming in thinks they can do it cheaper. According to the Scottish Executive, that is why we lost, because NorthLink were cheaper.

“We had a debrief and we were told it was purely down to cash.”

Knowing full well the timescale was tight at the time, Mr Cairns said P&O had already outlined the designs of their new ferries, and a shortlist of shipyards had been drawn up.

Near the top of the shortlist were Aker Finnyards – the Finnish yard where NorthLink chose to have their ferries built.

As to the future, Mr Cairns said P&O Scottish Ferries will still have a presence in Aberdeen until around February.

“We will be here in Aberdeen for some months after closure of the contract while we run the business down.”

Speaking about his own future, Mr Cairns said he was still unsure what his next move would be.

One things for sure, he joked, that at 55 years of age, he’s got more than a few years left in him yet.