Our history
Norfolkline began in 1961 as Norfolk Lijn N.V. and was formed by a Dutch entrepreneur Mr. Reemus and it was under his stewardship that Norfolkline took its first foray into the ferry business, acquiring a Ro/Ro vessel (The Duke of Holland) in 1969.
In 1973, after 4 years of growth in the Holland to UK market Mr. Reemus sold Norfolk Lijn N.V. to Unilever who aquired it as part of their diversification strategy of the 1970's.
Unilever renamed the company in 1974 and continued to own the business until 1985 when A.P. Moller-Maersk took control of the business.
As part of the Maersk group, the business continued to grow. A major landmark was reached in 1992 when Norfolkline stopped sailing to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and opted to sail to Felixstowe instead, to take advantage of the shorter transfer time from there to London.
As a result of this change Norfolkline found itself in the curious position of no longer having anything to do with Norfolk, but such was the strength of the Norfolkline name, and its reputation in the market the company went from strength to strength in spite of this.
In the mid to late nineties the company expanded significantly with the introduction of rail freight services in 1995, the addition of 4 new vessels to the fleet in 1996, the launch of a container transport route (Rotterdam-Waterford) in 1997, and the launch of a refrigerated transport division in Belfast in 1998.
It was at this time (1998) that Norfolkline stopped being Norfolk Line to become "Norfolkline" as we know it today.
Since then the company has grown substantially year on year with the opening of a second refrigerated transport operation in Larkhall in 1999, the launch of a new ferry route bewteen Dover and Dunkerque in 2000, the expansion of our managed contract business when Norfolkline was named logistics provider for Millenium Chemicals EU in 2001, the launch of our UK-Italy rail service in 2004, the acquisition of Norsemerchant in 2005 (creating our Irish Sea ferry service), and the launch of our new routes from Vlaardingen to the UK in 2006.
Recent years have also seen significant investment in new fleet, the highlight being the launch of our award winning vessels on the Dover-Dunkerque route in 2005/2006.