David MacBrayne is the parent company of two major subsidiary businesses CalMac Ferries Ltd and Solent Gateway Ltd.
The group also has two human resource subsidiaries which support the business, David MacBrayne HR (UK) Ltd and Caledonian MacBrayne Crewing (Guernsey) Ltd.
A publicly-owned private company the Scottish Government is DML’s sole shareholder.
In terms of routes and vessels, CalMac is the UK’s largest ferry operator. CalMac runs 33 vessels to over 54 ports and harbours, across 200 miles of Scotland’s west coast. Operating to 27 ports and have delegated authority at 17 statutory harbours on behalf of owner Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd. On average 162,750 sailings a year are completed - from 5 minutes to 6 hours. In 2019, one of CalMac's busiest years to date, 5,533,762 passengers were carried.
The routes – which range from Campbeltown and the Isle of Arran in the south, to the Isle of Lewis in the north. CalMac Ferries provide an everyday lifeline service to communities and play a critical role in enabling the area’s industry – particularly tourism, helping to attract 5.5m visitors in the last year. CalMac Ferries are committed to supporting some of the UK’s most remote and economically fragile areas.
Solent Gateway Ltd (SGL) is the newest addition to the DML stable of companies. A joint venture between DML and logistics experts GBA (Holdings) Ltd it operates Marchwood Military Port in Hampshire.
Marchwood is one of the busiest military ports in the country and SGL were chosen as harbour operator by the Ministry of Defence on a 35 year contract in 2016. As well as managing military movements in and out of the port the company is also exploring the potential for a variety of commercial opportunities on the site.