Approximately four months after the acquisition of HSW by Attica Group, Ferry Shipping News met Spiros Paschalis, CEO Attica Group, for a breakfast meeting in Athens.
Mr Paschalis says great effort and work from all colleagues to successfully achieve the operational integration of Hellenic Seaways and prepare the new enlarged Attica family, is on track.
The Attica Group Headquarters will be extended with a newly acquired satellite building that will be ready before the end of the year, to accommodate the total of Attica’s new Organization.
Also, major investments in modern state of the art business systems are on-going i.e. SAP 4 HANA will be introduced in January 2019 and a new reservations system has been developed and tailor made to facilitate Attica’s and its customer’s requirements for the years to come. The new system was successfully launched and went live in spring 2018.
In the field of sales and marketing, one common commercial organisation will overlook all brands operating under the Attica Group: Superfast Ferries, Blue Star Ferries, Hellenic Seaways and will also support the Moroccan affiliate Africa Morocco Links (AML).
It is expected that by the end of the year Attica’s new organisational structure will be completed and operationally ready to face the challenging future.
On the new sulphur directive, Mr Paschalis said that Attica is finalizing and will soon announce its plans for the way ahead with regards to the fleet of Attica.
The new buildings program of Attica Group for new Ro-Pax tonnage and not only, has been temporarily put on hold. It will be activated at the beginning of the new year after the successful incorporation of Hellenic Seaways.
Mr. Paschalis and Attica are happy with the H1 2018 results with increased summer passenger, vehicle and cargo traffic.
The challenge for all ferry operators is again the increasing bunker prices. This also affects Attica Group. However, with a fuel-efficient fleet and with corrective operational management, Attica’s goal is to try to minimize the negative impact of the bunker price increases.
This year Attica Group on the Adriatic Sea and through Superfast Ferries, as a non-Italian operator, joined the Italian “Mare bonus programme” that financially supports the green objective to move freight traffic from road to sea.
AML, Africa Morocco Links, operates one vessel in low season and two vessels in high season on the Tangier Med -Algeciras route, offering up to 8 round trip sailings per day. AML has managed within a short period of time to satisfy customer’s expectations, obtain its fair share of traffic and is expected to deliver favourable results this year for its shareholders, BMCE Bank of Morocco and Attica Group.
Ferry Shipping News wishes to Attica team all the best for the exciting future development.