StraitNZ

The company has its origins in Otorohanga Transport, founded by Jim Barker and Dennis Dow in 1963.^[6]

Inter-island ferry operations began in 1992 as Strait Shipping Limited,^[3] as a way for Barker to provide more affordable inter-island ferry services for his trucking group. Ferries between the North and South Islands of New Zealand were then monopolised by the Interisland Line, owned by the then state-owned enterprise New Zealand Rail (privatised in 1993 and renamed Tranz Rail in 1995). As of 2022, the two companies still hold a duopoly on interisland ferry services.

As well as operating across the Cook Strait between Wellington and Picton, Strait Shipping has in the past also operated freight shipping between Wellington and Napier, also in the North Island, and Nelson and Lyttelton in the South Island.

Bluebridge was launched as the passenger service brand of Strait Shipping in 2003.^[7]

In 2016, Strait Shipping was sold to Australian-based Champ Private Equity Group.^[8][7] At the same time, Champ Group also purchased trucking companies Freight Lines and Streamline Freight, which had both been separately owned by the Barker family.^[7] At the time, the trucking and ferry companies owned by the Barker family were estimated to employ around 750 people.

On 29 March 2018 Strait Shipping Limited was renamed StraitNZ,^[9] with passenger services continuing to operate under the Bluebridge brand.^[1] Sister companies Freight Lines and Streamline ^[7] were rebranded as "StraitNZ Linehaul" and "StraitNZ Freight Forwarding"^[1] respectively. That year, a 25% stake in the company was acquired by Macquarie.

In December 2021, the StraitNZ Group was sold by Champ Private Equity and Macquarie to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, for a reported sale price of NZ$500 million.^[10] The acquisition was completed in March 2022.

As of 2021, StraitNZ’s Bluebridge ferry unit was reported to have a 56% market share for Cook Strait vehicle freight, and a 31% market share for passenger services. The remaining share is held by Interislander, a subsidiary of New Zealand Government-owned KiwiRail.^[4]