ESTONIA. Leading Baltic Sea cruise ferry company Tallink Grupp today reported full-year results for 2023, with shop and restaurant sales climbing by +3.2% year-on-year to €391 million. Retail traditionally accounts for around three-quarters of the combined shopping and dining business at sea and on shore.
The increase in sales did not keep pace with +4.5% passenger growth in the year, as the group’s ships carried 5.7 million guests.
The company served 3.5 million passengers on its largest route, between Estonia and Finland, with numbers rising by +10.8% year-on-year. Finland-Sweden routes showed +9.9% growth to 1.7 million while 600,000 travellers used Estonia-Sweden routes, up by +19%.
Unaudited consolidated revenue amounted to €835.3 million, up by +8.3% year-on-year. Unaudited EBITDA was €214.5 million and unaudited net profit for the period was €78.9 million, up by +58% and +466%, respectively.
Commenting on performance, the company noted: “The volume of cargo and passenger transportation was impacted by less vessels in operation due to chartering and by less trips made compared to the same period a year ago. The demand was also impacted by low consumer and business confidence levels, and weak economic environment in all group core markets but also by global geopolitical instability.”
Tallink Grupp CEO Paavo Nõgene said: “The financial results that we are reporting today have come at a price of significant effort, continued hard work, countless sleepless nights and many sacrifices made by all Tallink Silja Line employees, so all credit for this milestone result must go to all the hard-working colleagues across all our home markets over the last four years and in 2023. Our 4,900 employees have slowly and steadily rebuilt this strong foundation that we can now build our future on.
“The travel and transport sectors continue to be under pressure from weak economies, increased and increasing prices, wavering consumer confidence, geopolitical turbulence, tightening regulation and increased demands for investments into greener futures and innovation, so the challenge to remain competitive and profitable in these market conditions is stronger than ever.
“But we have, I believe, found the right course and strategy for ourselves for managing these risks for the foreseeable future with the mix of vessels in operation and vessels chartered, and this approach has helped us achieve the positive results despite all the challenges.
“In addition to the charters supporting the bottom line, we have seen some of our core routes and operational vessels perform well in 2023, with the Tallinn-Helsinki route seeing the strongest recovery in 2023, but also Tallinn-Stockholm route slowly edging in the right direction with increasing demand and thus warranting a trial addition of a second vessel to the route for the summer high season in 2024.
“Our newest fleet member MyStar performed as we hoped in 2023, attracting both repeat business as well as many new customers to the Tallinn-Helsinki route and contributing significantly to the business during its first year in operation.” ✈
