One of Liverpool’s oldest businesses, Bibby Line Group, reports 64% surge in pre-tax profits to £12.8m thanks to a strong performance by its marine division. Tony McDonough reports

218-year old Liverpool family business Bibby Line Group (BLG) is reporting a surge in both annual revenues and profits.

BLG said the best-performing of its three divisions – Bibby Marine – helped drive group revenues 11% higher to £268m while pre-tax profits soared 64% to £12.8m.

One of Liverpool’s oldest businesses, BLG was established as a shipping company in Liverpool in 1807. Based at Exchange Flags in the city centre it is now a diverse International business.

Still owned by the Bibby family, it employs around 1,300 in multiple countries across three divisions – Bibby Marine, Bibby Financial Services and Garic – the group’s infrastructure business.

In January 2025 Bibby Marine began construction of the world’s first zero-emission offshore wind farm support vessel. The company currently operates two conventionally-fuelled support vessels – Wavemaster Horizon and Wavemaster 1.

Costing tens of millions of pounds, and backed by the UK Government, this new electric commissioning service operation vessel (eCSOV) will feature a battery system complemented by dual-fuel methanol engines.

Bibby Marine has led a consortium developing its groundbreaking maintenance vessel for several years. In September 2023 it secured £20m from the Government to support the project.

Although it hasn’t revealed the cost of the eCSOV previous estimates have put the figure at between £40m and £50m. This new vessel is being built by Armon, which is located in Vigo in Spain. Bibby has now said it wants to build a fleet of the vessels.

During 2024 Bibby Marine saw revenues rise to £36.8m from £21.1m in the previous year. Pre-tax profits were £4.1m, against a pre-tax loss of £4m in 2023.

Bibby Financial Services saw turnover of £188.6m, up from £178m with pre-tax profits falling slightly to £11.2m from £12.1m. Garic reported revenues of £42.8m, higher than the £40.8m recorded in 2023.

However, pre-tax profits halved from £4.2m in 2023 to £2.1m in 2024. BLG says this reflected the impact of ongoing restructuring and investment, alongside “challenging market conditions”.

Garic, which rebranded in April 2024, expanded its eco-range of goods and services, while introducing digital customer tools.

BLG chief executive, Jonathan Lewis, said: “2024 was a year of both delivery and investment. We achieved another year of strong trading results, while also driving resilience and investing in our future success.

“Our marine business had a very positive year, backed by strong utilisation across the fleet, while taking steps to start construction of the world’s first zero-emission eCSOV.

“Bibby Financial Services continued its transformation, becoming even more agile and customer-focused, and Garic is redefining what sustainable site solutions look like with digital innovation and greener assets.

“While the broader economic environment remains challenging and unpredictable, what matters is how we respond – and our approach is clear: invest in our people, culture and capability.”