Thyssenkrupp

PHOTO: Betriebsteil Lemwerder©Wolfgang Kundel (terra-air service)

Shipbuilding Consolidation: Luerssen Acquires Blohm+Voss GmbH

Family owned and Bremen based shipyard, Luerssen acquired storied shipyard Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, the company announced on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. With the acquisition of Blohm+Voss, Luerssen said it is entering into a long-term relationship to strengthen its portfolio in the repair and refit activities for yachts, naval and commercial ships as well as enhancing its naval new build activities within their corporation. The contract between Luerssen and the funds of British private equity investor…

Jean-Gabriel Tridon (Photo: Blohm+Voss)

Blohm+Voss Strengthens Team

Blohm+Voss has appointed Jean-Gabriel Tridon as General Manager and Dieter Pladeck as Finance Director for its new maintenance and refit facility in La Ciotat in the south of France. The company has filled the two management positions only two weeks after winning the local tender of La Ciotat Shipyards for the setting up of the new site. In La Ciotat, Blohm+Voss will focus on the maintenance and refit of megayachts of over 80 meters in length. Fred van Beers, Chief Executive Officer at Blohm+Voss: “We are filling these key positions with familiar faces.

Insights with an Kees Pilaar MD, Blohm + Voss

It could be argued that running an efficient, safe and profitable ship repair yard is one of the most difficult of all maritime jobs. First and foremost, unpredictability – in terms of planned and actual workload, as well as the very nature of the job themselves – is a recurring theme. Maintaining experienced staff in times good and bad; keeping ahead of evolving regulations, as they pertain to the local environment and the global ship market; and weathering the inevitable influx of cut-rate competition from emerging nations are but a sampling of the issues ship repair managers face every day.