SeaFrance to emulate airport retail on new ship

Padraic Convery

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

The Berlioz will launch in February with an open-plan retail area more in line with airports than ferries

Cross-Channel ferry operator SeaFrance has unveiled ambitious retail plans for its new vessel, the £65m ($119m) Berlioz. The company will launch the ship in February, and SeaFrance director of onboard services Stuart Rourke told RavenFox.com the retail offer would be more like those found at airports than on board older ferries.

"It'll be a much more open-plan design," he said, "with huge areas for promotional activity that we can reconfigure easily. At the moment ships' interiors are not very flexible, but this will be much more like an airport environment. It will be more versatile and there will be more storage space. We've learned a lot from the shops we have at the moment, and from the need to change things frequently."

Rourke confirmed that recent hikes in French tobacco taxes had hit onboard sales, but said the company had no plans to reduce the space allocated to the category. Instead he pointed to a more aggressive approach to selling tobacco, while trying to draw passengers into the store through other means. In particular, he reported that wine sales had doubled year-on-year as a result of an increased New World range, popular with UK passengers, and promotions such as wine tastings with celebrity connoisseurs.

For an in-depth report on the cross-Channel ferry market, click here