Ofotens og Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab or OVDS was a Norwegian

shipping company A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

that operated

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

in Northern Norway, including the Coastal Express, car ferries and passenger ferries. The company

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with

Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap or TFDS is a defunct Norwegian shipping company that also has activities in public transport and tourism. Based in Tromsø the company was one of the two operators of the Coastal Express and also operated a number o ...

in 2006 to form

Hurtigruten Group Hurtigruten AS is a Norwegian coastal ferry service and cruise line headquartered in Oslo, Norway. It is the larger of two companies currently operating ''Hurtigruten'', the coastal ferry service along the Norwegian coast from which it takes it ...

. OVDS's main office was in

Narvik () is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...

while the ferry section was located in

Stokmarknes or is a town and the administrative centre of Hadsel Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the northern coast of the island of Hadseløya and on the small, neighboring island of Børøya. The town has a population (2023) o ...

. The company had about 1,500 employees at the time of the merger and operated 14 coastal expresses, 18 car ferries and 14 passenger ferries. OVDS was created as a merger between the two shipping companies

Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab was a Norwegian shipping company that operated ferries in Northern Norway. The ferry service was founded by Richard With on 10 November 1881 at Stokmarknes in Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three n ...

(VDS, established in 1881) and Ofoten Dampskipsselskap (ODS, established in 1912).

References

Ferry companies of Norway Defunct shipping companies of Norway Transport companies of Nordland Companies disestablished in 2006 Companies with year of establishment missing {{Norway-shipping-company-stub