MSC changes tack: there is no such thing as bad PR

© Khunaspix Dreamstime.

Times were when Geneva-headquartered MSC was painfully media-shy and unwilling to comment on good news stories, let alone any bad news. Indeed, the carrier’s amazing 45-years of entirely organic growth from having a few elderly containerships to becoming the world’s second-biggest container line continued to confound its critics who said it must up its game, embrace journalists and, moreover, do a better job of profiling itself.

And now, with its partnership in the 2M alliance with Maersk – the industry’s most transparent and media-friendly shipping group – MSC has clearly decided that there might be something to gain in PR after all. In fact MSC is loudly blowing its own trumpet withthe ‘largest container ship ever built ’–  the 19,224 teu MSC Oscar – on its maiden call at North European ports. And there are even reports that it has made its first ever appointment of a PR director.