MacGregor reorganises

MacGregor has merged its RoRo, Dry Cargo and Crane divisions and the self-unloaders part of the Bulk Handling division to form a new Merchant Ship division, which will benefit its two biggest groups of customers ? shipowners and shipyards ? as well as the Group itself.

“The company has been growing very rapidly and we have two new business areas where we have been very aggressive and very successful: offshore and bulk handling,” said Juhani Lukumaa, senior vice president, who heads the new division. “But at the same time we do not want to overlook developing business with our long-standing customers in the maritime industry, where MacGregor traditionally has been strong. Our recently formed Merchant Ship division will concentrate on this business. Also many navies and their various naval ship applications using the same kind of handling solutions are an important customer segment for us.

“We believe that we can improve our customer focus still further and benefit from synergies, efficiency and co-operation between those divisions that have served the same customers. We are now combining the strengths of the individual business units to maximum effect, in other words: ?the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?.

“The Merchant Ship division represents a major business area ? its turnover for this year is estimated to be half of Group?s total turnover. We are large enough to better serve our customers by concentrating our resources on consulting them and co-operating with their needs, for example at the stage before they have even decided upon the final design for a new ship, but are still thinking about the kind of solutions they are going to provide.

“The size of the Merchant Ship division means that we can afford to have more specialised people dedicated to the shipyards, combining tasks previously carried out by separate divisions. And this means that service to the shipyards ? which are obviously mainly in China, Korea and Japan ? will be better.

“What can MacGregor do for our customers with the new organisational set up? For the shipowners, we should like to help them find the most efficient most economical solutions, especially concentrating on reliability and functionality. For the shipyards, we should like to help and support them better. If we can do this alongside the other growing MacGregor businesses I think it?s a very positive effect, and everybody benefits”.