ESTONIA. Leading cruise ferry company and travel retailer Tallink Grupp has reported a strong set of results for Q4 and a broad recovery in passenger traffic and commercial sales through 2022.
Shop and restaurant sales climbed by +10.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to €96.2 million. This segment accounted for 47% of all group revenues in the period. For the full year, commercial sales reached €378.1 million, more than a +60% increase on 2021 though still some way off pre-pandemic figures of over €500 million.
The sales figures were buoyed by a near doubling of passenger traffic to 5.5 million, though this too remains some way behind the 2019 number of just under 10 million.
Total consolidated revenue climbed by +61.7% in the year to €771.4 million. Tallink also returned to profit (€13.9 million) for the first time since 2019. This followed a loss of €56.6 million in 2021.
In its results statement, the group said: “Although the first few months of 2022 were still marginally impacted by the last remaining Covid travel restrictions, it was not the pandemic that hindered our company’s greater ambitions for recovery in 2022, but the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the resulting economic and geopolitical turbulence with price hikes and overall uncertainties. Despite this, the company saw increases in revenues, on board spending, passenger numbers, hotel guest numbers and much more compared to 2020 and 2021.
“At the same time, the company’s costs also significantly increased in a number of areas due to global price hikes, most notably the fuel costs, which increased +99.5% compared to the previous year, ship operating expenses that increased +50.2% year-on-year and the cost of goods sold, which increased +45.4% year-on-year. Strong cost control thus continues to be a priority for the company.”
CEO Paavo Nõgene said: “We had great confidence at the start of last year that 2022 was going to be the year [of] rapid recovery of business and increased stability compared to previous years. This confidence was of course quickly overturned almost a year ago today, on 24 February 2022, with the outbreak of war in Europe.
“The ensuing geopolitical and economic shockwave made us realise that a new year with new challenges lay ahead and more quick thinking, creative solutions and flexibility was going to be required. I am proud that we have been able to offer support not only to our own Estonian government in the aftermath of the humanitarian crisis that the war unleashed, but also to a number of other governments in Europe.
“Supporting them with temporary housing on our vessels has in many ways also helped us, keeping our vessels working at a time when some of them would otherwise perhaps be suspended. We will continue this support as long as it is needed.
“The new and challenging charters of our vessels, the daily efforts of restoring core route operations, the significant team effort to complete the construction of our newest fleet member MyStar and the start of operations with her on the Tallinn-Helsinki route were the focus of our activities last year, many of which will continue also in 2023. I remain hopeful, as I was last year, that we will continue to see recovery on our core routes throughout 2023.”
*Click here for our recent on location report from the new Tallink MyStar cruise ferry. At 2,500sq m over two decks, the €247 million vessel – which serves the vital Tallinn-Helsinki route – houses the largest retail environment of any ship in the Baltic Sea, with many market firsts from brand partners. ✈
