Bibby Line
Bibby Line is a UK company concerned with shipping and marine operations.
Its parent company, Bibby Line Group Limited, can be traced back to John Bibby who founded the company in 1807. The company along with the group is based in Liverpool.
History
The Bibby Line was founded in 1807 by the first John Bibby.After John Bibby was attacked and murdered on 19 July 1840, his sons John and James took ownership of the Bibby Line.
It was one of the first businesses in the world to fit its entire fleet with radio, by the British based Radio Communication Company.
Along with other British ship owners, it endured hard economic conditions in the 1970s and 1980s, but survived through diversification into floating accommodation. The group diversified in the 1980s into separate divisions, including Bibby Financial Services which was formed in 1982. The parent company is now called, and is a £800 million global business, operating in 14 countries, employing 4,000 people in sectors including retail, financial services, distribution, shipping, marine and infrastructure.
Since 2007, Bibby Line Group and its employees have donated over £10 million and thousands of volunteering hours to over 1,000 charitable causes.
In 2008, the Bibby Line Group continued to diversify with the purchase of the construction asset hire company Garic UK. Bibby Line Group’s investment enabled Garic to remain a key market player, in a competitive sector. Currently, Garic has four sites across the UK and is one of the most trusted specialized plant and welfare facility providers in the UK.
In July 2023, an open letter signed by over fifty NGOs and campaigners, including the Refugee Council, called Bibby Marine, as owner of the Bibby Stockholm, to acknowledge its founder John Bibby's links to the Atlantic slave trade and to end the practice of containing asylum seekers on its vessels. Later that month, a Guardian report highlighted safety concerns on board the Bibby Stockholm, including potential overcrowding along with narrow corridors and a lack of lifejackets on board. The Times also reported there were concerns about fire safety, noting it could become 'a floating Grenfell'. On 11 August 2023 legionella was found to be on board and a water sample taken on 15 August 2023 confirmed this to be of 'the most deadly strain' of legionella pneumophila, found in the ship's kitchen's galley pot wash hose.
Ships
Bibby Line has a fleet of accommodation barges and Service Operation Vessels.Current fleet
Vessels currently operated by Bibby Line include:- Diving support vessel
- Accommodation barge
Former fleet
Vessels that have previously operated for Bibby Line include:Cheshire - operated by Bibby Transport suffered a cargo fire in August 2017 off the coast of the Canary Islands during a passage from Norway to Thailand with a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The cargo in all five of the ship’s cargo holds burned for two straight weeks. Shipping Watch reports that 'toxic gases had M/V Cheshire's cargo exploding and made it rain fertilizer'. In 2021 the Norwegian Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that crew negligence was a key factor in the loss of the Cheshire and ordered Bibby Transport and Singapore-based operator J. Lauritzen to pay compensation and costs totalling around US$30m. Safety4Sea reports: 'Ruling that Bibby and Lauritzen were liable to pay damages, the court said it had found evidence of a ‘negligent breach of clear and repeated instructions’ by the ship’s crew, who had failed to ensure that all heat sources in the cargo holds were disconnected before loading. The judgment further states that a light by a ladder in cargo hold 4 had probably been left on from the time of loading and, most likely, had not been disconnected until four days after that,– by which time the heat around the lamp had started the chemical reaction. "The instructions were to disconnect the power supply, not just to turn off the switches. That such disconnection probably only took place after four days is in itself clearly reprehensible," the court pointed out. The court also decided that the crew were negligent in failing to act more quickly when the first signs of problems with the cargo had been detected.'- - Lost on 9 September 1980 during Typhoon Orchid with all 44 hands onboard. Largest British vessel ever lost at sea.
- - wrecked on Cardigan Island in 1934 while on the way to be scrappedLeicestershire - sold, renamed and sunk in the Aegean Sea in 1966
- - official number 131454, recorded travelling Liverpool - Marseilles - Port Said - Colombo - Rangoon, departing Liverpool 2 March 1923. Somersetshire Worcestershire
- - sunk by in September 1939 with the loss of 58 lives
Current operations
As of 2023 the Bibby Line labels itself a diverse company which has three separate services split into: Financial Services, Marine Services, and infrastructure applications. These businesses within the Bibby line group, operate across multiple countries and currently it is recorded to employ 1300 colleagues. It is now recording management of 1 billion pounds in funds.After suffering through COVID-19 and ultimately undertaking a restructuring it was recorded that generally after working at a net loss they were able to run more profitably. In reports sent to the Uk companies house it can be seen that on December 31, 2021, the group made a net profit of £35.5m, compared with a net loss of £29.9m in 2020.