Davit company moves into cranes through acquisition

Acta was formed in 1955 and has built up a range of offshore marine cranes, life raft and MOB davits as well as deck machinery. Acta claims to be the only crane manufacturer producing CE-marked cranes for offshore wind power installations. The company is located in Odense, Denmark, and will now be known as NoreqActa. The size of Noreq in terms of number of employees will be doubled, from 35 to 70, and the company will take on Acta’s order backlog, which is said to be significant.

According to Styrk Bekkenes, Noreq managing director: “With this acquisition, the Noreq group is not only strengthening our foothold in the lifeboat, davit and fender market, but we are also entering the industry with production of own ship- and offshore cranes. We see great synergies together with our existing product range and our clients will benefit from this strengthening of our product portfolio. We have a lot of common tasks on production, sales, service and maintenance which we will benefit from.”

Bekkenes sees considerable potential in the wind power business. “By purchasing Acta we are also entering a new industry. Acta has long been an important sub supplier to the wind power industry and they hold great competence and expertise on this subject. With the future of green energy we will continue to build and strengthen Acta’s position within this industry” he says.

Noreq began in 2006, and has specialised in innovative lifesaving equipment, including an enclosed davit concept introduced in 2009, with more than 130 systems sold. The intention is to further optimise and streamline Acta’s production in order to be more innovative, and to focus on security of supply and quality.