North P&I club starts major HQ expansion

The ?A? rated, 100 million GT North of England P&I club starts a major 18 month construction project today, expanding its freehold headquarters building in Newcastle-upon-Tyne by over 50%. The first stage involves relocating all staff and equipment across the River Tyne to temporary office accommodation in Gateshead.

The expansion scheme will enable the club to employ 125 more headquarters staff – two thirds up on the current capacity – enabling North to achieve its goal of increasing P&I market share from 10% to a minimum of 12.5% of the world?s owned shipping tonnage.

Joint managing director Paul Jennings says, ?When we moved into our brand new building on The Quayside in 1994, we had 14 million GT of entered shipping and 64 employees. Since then we have been on a steady expansion path, to the point where over 175 people now work in our head office. The enlarged premises will allow us to continue providing first-class service to members for the foreseeable future.?

In addition to adding a fourth storey and increasing the floor area from 2,230 square metres to 3,620 square metres, the whole building will be refitted and updated. The temporary office at Baltic House, South Shore Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE8 3BA has a floor area of 2,460 square metres and a duplicate information technology infrastructure is already in place. Telephone numbers and email addresses will remain unchanged.

North currently insures some 350 member groups from around the world, with a total P&I entry of 3,750 vessels of 100 million GT (80 million GT owned and 20 million GT chartered). Around 1,500 ships are also entered for FD&D cover with the club?s large and experienced defence team. The club is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK with regional offices in Hong Kong, Piraeus and Singapore.