Ten years ago ship equip was a modest communications company with less than ten employees. Today Ship Equip in Aalesund has more than 120 employees at various location worldwide.
Dedicated focus on satellite communication to and from ships is the key to the growth both in terms of employees and in turnover.
Last autumn Ship Equip in Aalesund was listed among the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Norway by Consulting company Deloitte. At that time the growth was a staggering 626 percent during the 5 previous years
2009-figures
The Ship Equip group is now presenting the figures for 2009 showing that they are still growing fast.
Despite financially turbulent conditions in 2009 turnover increased by 61 millions NOKs or just above 29 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 269 MNOKs. The operating profit before depreciation is also impressive, close to 56 MNOKs, Ivar Nesset is however pointing out that this is not more than it should be.
The expansion continues
– We are still investing heavily, and use the available funds to develop the company for the future. This will continue another three to five years Nesset points out.
Before tax the company earned a profit of just under two MNOKs, after depreciations, finance- and currency exchange costs has been deducted. The turnover growth last year represented close to 200 new SEVSAT satellite communication installs and close to 100 Ship Equip TV-systems for ships. Sales has been stable in all markets through the year, and with an increasing share of new sales coming from the international shipping segment says CEO Ivar Nesset.
Aalesund
Ivar Nesset leads the company from the headquarter in Spjelkavik, Aalesund. Where in less than ten years they have grown from ten to more than 70 employees. The remaining 120 employees in the Ship Equip Group are distributed at the offices in Oslo, Houston, Seattle, Singapore, London and Reykjavik.
– The organisation is built to handle the growth without getting strained, and is able to handle higher growth in 2010. We see new orders coming more and more in international shipping Ivar Nesset says.
Taking market share
The growth shows that Ship Equip is taking market share in its segment world wide.
– We currently have a market share of about 18 percent. There is however a big market out there. Currently around 4000 ships have VSAT satellite communication systems installed worldwide, and we estimate that in a ten year perspective as many as 65.000 ships can be potential users of such systems Ivar Nesset says.
– Could there be a threat in growing too fast?
– The biggest threat is in such case within ourselves – if we get self satisfied and neglect to follow up customers. That will not happen Ivar Nesset concludes.