For over a decade, our portfolio of in-house magazines has been lovingly produced, printed, and distributed to our esteemed subscribers across the globe from our headquarters in the UK.
But now we are moving with the times, adopting a digital-first approach by producing online-only publications. A major factor in this decision is to minimise our environmental footprint, reducing the carbon emissions involved in the logistics of print magazine distribution and the resources required therein.
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“We always planned that when our digital subscribers consistently accounted for 85% of our total magazine subscribers, we would cease printing our publications in-line with our environmental and sustainability goals.”
– Ben Weaver, CEO, Outlook Publishing Ltd
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director: Phoebe Harper phoebe.harper@outlookpublishing.com
Senior Editor: Marcus Kääpä marcus.kaapa@outlookpublishing.com
Editor: Jack Salter jack.salter@outlookpublishing.com
Junior Editor: Ed Budds ed.budds@outlookpublishing.com
Junior Editor: Rachel Carr rachel.carr@outlookpublishing.com
PRODUCTION
Production Director: Stephen Giles steve.giles@outlookpublishing.com
Senior Designer: Devon Collins devon.collins@outlookpublishing.com
Designer: Sophs Forte sophs.forte@outlookpublishing.com
Junior Designer: Louisa Martin louisa.martin@outlookpublishing.com
Production Assistant: Megan Cooke megan.cooke@outlookpublishing.com
Digital Marketing Manager: Fox Tucker fox.tucker@outlookpublishing.com
Social Media Executive: Bria Clarke bria.clarke@outlookpublishing.com
Web Editor: Oliver Shrouder oliver.shrouder@outlookpublishing.com
BUSINESS
Chief Executive Officer: Ben Weaver ben.weaver@outlookpublishing.com
Managing Director: James Mitchell james.mitchell@outlookpublishing.com
Sales Director: Nick Norris nick.norris@outlookpublishing.com
Commercial Director: Joshua Mann joshua.mann@outlookpublishing.com
HEADS OF PROJECTS
Josh Hyland josh.hyland@outlookpublishing.com
Deane Anderton deane.anderton@outlookpublishing.com
Eddie Clinton eddie.clinton@outlookpublishing.com
Ryan Gray ryan.gray@outlookpublishing.com
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Thomas Arnold thomas.arnold@outlookpublishing.com
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Marvin Iseghehi marvin.iseghehi@outlookpublishing.com
SALES & PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
Donovan Smith donovan.smith@outlookpublishing.com
PROJECT MANAGERS
Alfie Wilson alfie.wilson@outlookpublishing.com
Cameron Lawrence cameron.lawrence@outlookpublishing.com
Dave West dave.west@outlookpublishing.com
Dennis Morales dennis.morales@outlookpublishing.com
Jordan Levey jordan.levey@outlookpublishing.com
Kierron Rose kierron.rose@outlookpublishing.com
Kyle Livingstone kyle.livingstone@outlookpublishing.com
Nicholas Kernan nicholas.kernan@outlookpublishing.com
Liam Pye liam.pye@outlookpublishing.com
ADMINISTRATION
Finance Director: Suzanne Welsh suzanne.welsh@outlookpublishing.com
Finance Assistant: Suzie Kittle suzie.kittle@outlookpublishing.com
Finance Assistant: Victoria McAllister victoria.mcallister@outlookpublishing.com
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The European construction sector is big business, contributing approximately nine percent to the EU’s overall GDP and providing over 18 million direct jobs. Within this major economic driver, our cover star is Bouygues Travaux Publics, the innovative French contractor with a leading commitment to sustainable construction. Building better, through the added-value of “shared innovation”, we speak with Executive Vice President, Vincent Avrillon, in an exclusive interview for an update on the latest developments from an iconic name in construction.
“We are very proud of our design approach, as when we look at a project, the first thing we do is try to challenge the design, change it, modify it and find alternatives that will save time and money, and we regard this as our greatest strength,” he shares.
Elsewhere, building back, we delve into the meteoric comeback of leading Italian electricity provider, Tirreno Power. Re-emerging from the ‘perfect storm’ of 2015, we speak with General Manager, Fabrizio Allegra, to celebrate the company’s transformation to a renewable energy leader commemorating 20 years of operation in 2023.
“We have had to face many challenges in these 20 years, but we have come out stronger and with greater resilience and awareness of our skills and knowledge,” Allegra tells us.
Finally, building forwards, LTP Group is the garment and textile manufacturer embracing a ‘Consciously Crafted’ concept, in creating durable, functional, and premium products on behalf of the world’s leading brands with its choices determined by environmental and ethical accountability.
“We are committed to significantly improving LTP Group’s overall sustainability performance and to driving positive change across our industries,” says one-third of LTP Group’s modern leadership team, CEO for the Furniture Division, Henrik Holmgaard Olsson.
Meanwhile, discover thought-provoking corporate stories based on insightful interviews with Swiss Blue Salmon, the Port of Helsinki, the industry association behind the UK’s vaping industry, and many more.
We hope that you enjoy your read.
Phoebe Harper Editorial Director, Outlook Publishing
26 SHOWCASING LEADING COMPANIES
Tell us your story and we’ll tell the world
CONSTRUCTION
28 Bouygues Travaux
Publics
Fabricating Solid Future Foundations
Construction experts tunnelling to success
42 Knightsbridge Development Corporation
Construction Across Continents
6 NEWS
Around Europe and the Middle East in seven stories
8 EXPERT EYE
Global digital commerce powering Europe’s economic recovery
BUSINESS INSIGHTS
10 Technology
Digital for Green
Leveraging digital technologies to improve sustainability performance
1 4 Supply Chain
The World’s Shipyard
Managing the largest ship repair facility in the Middle East
TOPICAL FOCUS
18 Manufacturing
Data-Powered Manufacturing
The key to driving successful AI projects
50 Collegiate UK
Studying, Socialising and Sleeping in Style
A new concept in student living
ENERGY & UTILITIES
56 Tirreno Power
Recharging an Energy Renaissance
The comeback powering Italy’s sustainable future
MANUFACTURING
70 LTP Group
Future Facing Textile Manufacturing
The innovators of consciously crafted textiles and garments
20
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS
20 UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA)
A force for good in the fight for a smokefree UK
114 THE FINAL WORD
How do you encourage diversity in the workplace?
80 KNF Flodos AG
Delivering Unmatched Proficiency
Concentrated know-how and constant innovation
88 Bremsen Technik Group
Braking New Ground
The relocated home of automotive brake friction products
SUPPLY CHAIN
94 Port of Helsinki
The Gateway to Finland
Recovering passenger and cargo traffic in the Baltic Sea
102 Interbrands Orbico
Agility and Sustainability with a Global Distributor
Romania’s largest logistics network
FOOD & BEVERAGE
108 Swiss Blue Salmon
Smart Aquaculture in the Alps
Raising healthy and sustainable salmon on land
CREDIT SUISSE HAS been bought by rival investment bank UBS in a Swiss government-backed rescue deal.
Amid growing fears about the health of the global banking sector, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US, the last-minute deal aims to restore the confidence of financial markets and manage risks to
the economy.
Experts are, however, not forecasting a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis when a global recession was sparked by the failure of a number of big banks.
UBS will pay three billion Swiss francs (CHF) for the 167-year-old bank, and assume losses of around CHF5 million.
RESEARCH BY ROLLS-ROYCE into how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts is being backed by the UK Space Agency.
To develop technology that will provide the necessary power for humans to live and work on the Moon, scientists and engineers at RollsRoyce are working on the MicroReactor programme.
£2.9 million of new funding has been announced for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor.
All space missions depend on a power source, and nuclear power has the potential to increase the duration of future lunar missions as well as their scientific value. It is also expected to create new skilled jobs across the UK to support its burgeoning space economy.
MERCEDES IS REPORTEDLY investing in the modernisation of its plants in Rastatt (Germany), Kecskemet (Hungary) and Beijing (China).
The German carmaker is preparing to go electric by the end of the decade when market conditions allow, in line with EU emissions reduction targets.
Work is set to commence on the Rastatt plant over the coming months, and the facility will produce the first model of the compact vehicle platform, MMA, from 2024.
Mercedes will also be modernising its painting systems in Rastatt, as well as Bremen and Sindelfingen, with the aim of cutting energy and water consumption. It will additionally address the system’s reliance on gas rather than carbon-free energy.
A DEAL ALLOWING millions of tonnes of grain to be exported by Ukraine through the Black Sea has been extended, despite the ongoing conflict with Russia and a disagreement between the two countries over how long it will last.
Ukraine is pushing for a 120 day extension whilst Russia is only calling for 60 days, warning that it will not allow the deal to be prolonged any further unless sanctions ease against Moscow.
NEW PLANS TO stimulate and support investment in sustainable hydrogen production have been set out by the European Commission. Hydrogen can contribute significantly to ending EU dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports in the coming years and achieving the union’s climate neutrality ambitions by 2050.
The United Nations (UN) and Turkey originally helped to broker the export agreement in July 2022. It came in response to worries over food shortages, given Ukraine is one of the world’s top producers of grain and access to Black Sea ports was blocked by Russian warships after the invasion.
IN RESPONSE TO increasing customer demand, the inaugural flight of Maersk’s new air freight service has been announced with scheduled flights between Billund, Denmark and Hangzhou, China.
Commencing on 20th March with three weekly flights operated by Maersk’s internal cargo airline, the inaugural flight also marks the first scheduled air cargo operation between Denmark and Asia.
The European Hydrogen Bank (EHB) aims to accelerate investment and bridge the investment gap for the EU to reach domestic REPowerEU production targets of 10 million tonnes (mt) of renewable hydrogen by 2030, coupled with 10 mt of imports.
The EU is a research and innovation powerhouse, and the EHB will establish a full EU hydrogen value chain alongside the Net-Zero Industry Act, which seeks to boost manufacturing of clean technologies.
Access for high value and time sensitive cargo between Scandinavia, Northern Europe, and the entire Asia-Pacific region is expected to increase significantly in the corridor from Billund Airport.
Additionally, Maersk’s newly opened air freight hub at Billund Airport enables customers to avoid the congestion and delays that are commonplace at larger airports.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
A FURTHER £13 million canning line investment has been announced by leading soft drinks business, Britvic.
The investment takes Britvic’s Rugby factory into the top five largest soft drinks manufacturing sites in Europe, and will increase the production of some of the UK’s favourite brands such as Tango and Pepsi Max by 14 percent.
It follows a £27 million canning line investment in the factory in 2021, bringing total investment in the factory to £40 million over the last two years.
Writer:
There is no denying that the challenging economic environment that we find ourselves in today has impacted the technology sector. The ongoing inflationary impact of the war in Ukraine means that some investors are pulling away from the sector, which can stall innovation. However, there is light among the dark. We are still living through a rapid digital payments revolution as commerce continues to shift from offline to online.
In the emerging world of digital commerce, there are significant growth opportunities for SMBs. This comes at a critical time not only on the journey of those businesses and entrepreneurs but also for local economies across the region. The key word here is growth, and that is what is on offer for SMBs who are ready to look beyond the traditional and across borders.
We are now living in an environment where digital commerce innovation has been thrust upon the global population down to an initial necessity. Crucially for SMBs, there is still a lot of room for growth. E-commerce is expected to make up 24.5 percent of global sales by 2025[1]. This represents a monumental expansion of the digital commerce ecosystem but importantly there is headroom. People have rediscovered the benefits of face-to-face interaction, but we are all living digital lives. For SMBs in Europe, and indeed across the world, this represents an opportunity to broaden the customer base and achieve global growth.
For the region, the opportunity must be seen as the sum of many parts. For
example, SMBs produce 58 percent of European Union GDP and provide 67 percent of jobs across the region. This means that in an environment in which ambitious business owners can tap into the world of digital commerce, the positive impact on a country’s economic health cannot be underestimated. Fortunately, the barriers to entry are lower than they have ever been. E-commerce’s only prerequisite is access to digital networks, and with over four billion mobile phone users in the world [2], the digital gap is closing.
We have also seen trends emerge concurrently which are creating the perfect environment for innovation in online commerce, with one of the key elements being a truly borderless workforce. We’ve seen countries like Portugal and Spain welcome the digital nomad revolution with attractive Visa programmes. This is in response to a vibrant community of digital freelancers. We recently published our 2023 Global Freelancer Report which is based on responses from over 2,000 freelancers across
122 countries and revealed that almost half (46 percent) of freelancers report an increase in demand for their work from the global businesses that hire them compared to 2021. The growth of the borderless freelancer workforce means that SMBs are now not only being introduced to new customers across the world ,but are able to hire a team which reflects today’s global digital economy.
Moving from a domestic focus to looking at business growth across borders is often totally new territory for business owners. It’s an exciting prospect but it is important to consider the complex challenge ahead. For example, in Europe there remains different currencies and receiving funds in those different currencies can be a challenge. It is also vital to operate in a way that is compliant with local laws and regulations – there will be areas that are consistent and those where deviation and nuances are found. Looking beyond the technical and
operational, there are also distinct cultures and languages. It is important that global expansion is backed up by a clear understanding of how your business or product is going to be received in different countries.
The breadth of the European region also means that whilst digital commerce growth is a global phenomenon, the pace of change varies across the region. The maturity of each market within the region is also a vital consideration with Northern and Western Europe having a higher percentage of e-commerce sales than both Southern and Eastern Europe.
Digital businesses in more mature markets like the UK are likely to see the opportunities in digital commerce - we recently published research into UK sellers which found that 46 percent consider direct-to-consumer sales to be the biggest opportunity for their business in the next 12 months and 38 percent say social commerce presents the biggest opportunity. This openness to innovation is something that we are seeing emerge across Europe and it will be exciting to see the period of
innovative growth that lies ahead in countries like Serbia and Hungary.
In today’s global digital economy, the lines between competitors, partners and customers are blurred. At Payoneer for example, we partner with retailers, marketplaces, banks, and the wider payments and FinTech ecosystem. This is a global effort, but in Europe specifically, we are lucky enough to have a vibrant technology and FinTech community which is collaborating to bring innovative digital commerce solutions to SMBs. There have also been a number of positive steps taken across the region by policymakers to create a supportive environment. For example, the UK chancellor recently announced R&D tax credits for businesses looking to invest in innovation in FinTech. This is a positive step and coupled with the growth already taking place in the global digital commerce ecosystem will further drive the digital revolution.
James Allum is SVP and Regional Head of Europe at Payoneer, a financial technology company empowering the world’s SMBs to transact, do business and grow globally. Allum also heads up Payoneer’s global banking partnership strategy. Payoneer’s mission is to enable anyone anywhere to participate and succeed in the global digital economy. Since being founded, the company has built a global financial platform that has already made it easier for millions of SMBs, particularly in emerging markets, to pay and get paid, manage their funds, and grow their business.
Intentionally applying technology to advance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals is gaining traction, but challenges remain for business leaders aiming to successfully use digital innovation to boost sustainability.
Using digitalisation to measure and improve ESG performance, an approach that recognises the largely untapped opportunity for technology and data to drive sustainability goals, is sometimes called the ‘twin transition’, and the approach is becoming increasingly structured.
In its report “Digital for Green: Leveraging Digital Technologies to Improve Sustainability Performance”, The Conference Board, a global think tank delivering trusted insights for what’s ahead, interviewed multinational firms in Europe and the US to discover the ways leading edge companies are adopting the twin transition and how other organisations can benefit from what
they’ve learned. The report explains that a successful twin transition requires dedicated attention and efforts on three levels: envision, enable, and engage.
Successfully transforming a company culture to emphasise a sustainable approach to business and innovation requires considerable time and investment and must start at the top. Leadership at the board and C-suite level must set a clear direction toward sustainability, integrating the company’s ESG goals with its business goals, and incorporating both efforts into the organisation’s overall strategic plans.
Ideally, employees are incentivised to reach twin transition goals and leadership will need to continually revisit and reaffirm the company’s purpose and mission, to make it happen. Because twin transition goals can take time to bear fruit, one popular dynamic is for businesses to rely on long-term and non-financial metrics at board level, rather than rely solely on year-on-year profit and
loss data. Additionally, the incentives to prioritise and accelerate the twin transition need to incorporate longer term and more comprehensive financial and non-financial metrics.
Of course, all the incentives in the world will not boost sustainability unless employees have the right tools, methods, and authority to make the necessary changes. First, companies must ensure their information systems are up to the task. The Conference Board’s discussions with executives revealed that this effort is frequently focused on infrastructure and data management.
Infrastructure must be reliable internally as well as with shared external partners. Some new digital infrastructure, such as accounting and reporting systems, facilitates this joint participation. Additionally, as new accounting standards could require broader and more systemic environmental reporting,
firms will have to adapt or upgrade systems to fulfil these mandates. In parallel, data informs decisions, supports optimisation efforts, and enables the development of more sustainable business models, so data management systems must be structured, stable, and advanced enough to deal with real time data, all of which require a mature information system.
The Conference Board also found top executives are considering
methods and end-to-end thinking when approaching a twin transition. Leaders interviewed for the report mentioned holistic work approaches that incorporate circularity, as well as efforts to make the design and development of the products themselves more environmentally friendly through their entire life cycles, from production to use to waste. Firms also emphasised communication, indicating that integrity and transparency are
“AS RECENTLY AS A FEW YEARS AGO, SUSTAINABILITY AND DIGITISATION INITIATIVES WERE STILL APPROACHED VERY MUCH SEPARATELY FROM ONE ANOTHER, BUT NOW, THE TWO ARE SEEN AS COMPLEMENTARY FORCES THAT CAN EXPONENTIALLY IMPROVE DESIRED OUTCOMES”
– JOHN METSELAAR, THE CONFERENCE BOARD
important, especially when measuring and reporting on the progress of sustainable development. Not only does this bring clarity to stakeholders, but it helps them understand the added value of digital investments for sustainability. Companies are also considering the reputational impact of ESG, affirming that a positive societal impact and an upstanding reputation are indispensable for future growth and success.
Finally, the entire organisation must be engaged and empowered in the company’s strategy for green digital, both internally among employees and externally in terms of other players in the ecosystem. In their interviews with The Conference Board, executives firmly asserted that there are no structural obstacles to implementing the twin transition embedded in their
with digital and sustainability transformations and have an understanding of the related challenges, executives are leveraging additional ways to accelerate change. Some companies place the customer at the centre of their strategies while others adhere to a science-based approach, but a consistent theme was supporting experimentation and agility. The ability to navigate ongoing changes and innovate based on fast iterations builds resiliency and unlocks competitive advantages, according to executives. When tackling the digital aspect of a twin transition, some companies rely on small communities of digital champions to inspire and drive change, while others are exploring innovative methods such as reverse mentoring, where younger generations coach their older colleagues.
While internal collaboration is critical to digital and sustainability transformations, companies must also look outward, cooperating with suppliers, start-ups, and sometimes even competitors on the sustainable development of their shared ecosystem. These efforts vary widely, from opening data access to partners for digital innovation to teaming up with peers to develop sustainability standards for their sectors.
the vision and identifying roadblocks to drive workforce buy-in to the organisation’s twin transition. Ongoing, transparent dialogue is a commonly cited tool for establishing and maintaining a digital and sustainable mindset across and outside an organisation.
As recently as a few years ago, sustainability and digitisation initiatives were still approached very much separately from one another, but now, the two are seen as complementary forces that can exponentially improve desired outcomes. Envisioning the transformation at the strategic level, enabling the organisation to execute it, and engaging and empowering internal and external stakeholders to contribute are all key components to a successful twin transition.
company cultures besides mindset and a willingness of the workforce to implement the changes. Incentives are a solid way to build the right mindset, and in addition, companies are working on raising awareness of digital and sustainability issues, upgrading the workforce through hiring or training, and providing more time for employees to learn about initiatives related to the twin transition.
Once employees are on board
As with internal initiatives toward a twin transition, external efforts must also be underpinned by an organisational structure where the transition strategy is centralised and supported from the top. Some companies are approaching this by assigning dedicated teams to break down departmental silos and simplify processes that may have become too complex for rapid change.
Companies must also tackle mindset related challenges externally, ensuring a clear understanding of
John Metselaar is The Conference Board’s Centre Leader of the Economy, Strategy and Finance Centre, Europe. He also coleads its Innovation and Digital Transformation Institute and leads its European and Asian Innovation Councils, as well as the European Chief Technology and Innovation Officers Council. He additionally serves as Senior Fellow. Metselaar is also Professor at the Solvay Brussels Business School for Economics and Management (ULB) for which he teaches his course and modules of “Leading and Living Innovation”. Previously, Metselaar held a 30-year VP-level career leading Innovation at Procter & Gamble (P&G). He has worked in Cincinnati, US, and Kobe, Japan, and served as the CTO of P&G’s Brussels Innovation Center.
Drydocks World has worked relentlessly to establish itself as a leading provider of marine and offshore services to the shipping, oil and gas and energy sectors. We delve deeper into the key to success and the exciting future of the company with CEO, Captain Rado Antolovic
Writer: Ed BuddsDrydocks World provides unrivalled shipbuilding and repair services, as well as expert ship maintenance, rig building, refurbishment, and offshore fabrication services from its industry leading facilities in Dubai, UAE.
Conceived as an ambitious project under the guidance of H.H. Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the late ruler of Dubai, the yard has grown spectacularly over the past 40 years.
We find out more with Captain Rado Antolovic, CEO of Drydocks World.
EME Outlook (EO): Could you briefly introduce us to Drydocks World?
Rado Antolovic, CEO (RA): Strategically located in Dubai, a rapidly developing region of the world, we have been able to take advantage of the Emirates’ political and economic stability to grow our reputation as a reliable,
cost-efficient one-stop shop solution for our customers. On average, we complete over 300 projects a year, with a record of handling 42 refurbishment projects simultaneously. Located next to Dubai’s Port Rashed, our yard is spread over 200 hectares, and includes three dry docks, one wet and dry basin for docking small vessels and a floating dock, as well as more than 3,700 metres of berth space. It also boasts an in-house-built floating crane, which can lift 2,000 metric tonnes, including the weight of lifting gear for all types of heavy lift operations.
Our workforce can only be described as a beehive: we currently employ 9,000 employees. As we are constantly looking for the best possible talent, we also employ over 3,000 subcontractor
personnel – making our total workforce of 12,000 some of the best talent in the industry. Our specialised project management team, comprised of marine engineers, naval architects, and ex-classification society surveyors, have the expertise and training to deliver projects on time and service clients locally and globally. This comes in handy, as our clientele is truly global, spanning from the Middle East and Europe to South America, Africa, and Asia. Aside from the retrofitting, new-build, and conversion services that we offer at our yard – including complete solutions for fabrication of offshore projects, turret systems, modules and specialised vessels –we’re able to provide global offshore services at short notice at any location.
These facilities have allowed us to break records in constructing some of the largest new build offshore fabrications in the world. But we also know that while reputation is hard won, it’s also not easy to keep. That’s why we aim to consistently deliver excellence and position ourselves as an international yard of choice by constantly upgrading our facilities and investing in expanding our capabilities. Overall, we like to think of ourselves as a piece of the UAE maritime industry’s success story.
EO: What is your take on the shipping industry in Europe at the moment?
RA: Europe’s trade development is deeply intertwined with shipping, and it remains central to the region’s economic outlook today. Whether that’s making use of the rivers that run through the region or its access to trade-prone seas such as the North and Mediterranean basins, its economy lives and breathes trade. In terms of trends, I’ve identified two that will affect the rest of the global shipping industry in some capacity – the turn towards “green” shipping, and geopolitical energy strategy protection, or the shortening of the energy supply chain, further concentrating trade within the region. Both these trends are full of opportunity for private businesses to innovate, so it’s a space we’re excited to see grow and develop.
EO: What are the most challenging elements of the business and how are you overcoming them?
RA: The main challenge in the industry and for our own business is meeting the increase in demand for our services post-pandemic. However, to pre-empt these capacity pinch points, we have been investing to expand and upgrade our yard’s facilities for years so we’re confident that we will be able to navigate these headwinds. Our South Yard expansion has been one of the recent developments which will increase our fabrication capacity area by 70,000 square metres, which is set to add one more load out facility in the yard.
We have also made sizable investments in equipment including recent purchases of new cranes, as well as hydro blasting and other equipment, to increase our efficiencies.
Alongside our hardware upgrades, we are also in the process of implementing a new state of the art Internet of Things (IoT) system that will help us streamline our production and project management planning and execution to avoid capacity congestion. The aim of our digital transformation journey is to digitalise the existing processes that are currently being done manually, to increase productivity, optimise costs, enhance staff performance, and provide real-time data for immediate business decision making.
EO: Are there any ongoing or recent projects that the company is particularly excited about?
RA: There are several projects we are excited about, including our own business transformation and work we are undertaking for our valued customers.
We are set to begin work on upgrading the Petrojarl Knarr floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for deployment at the Rosebank field offshore of the UK. The contract is a joint venture with Aker Solutions, and under the agreement, we’ll be responsible for the construction and life extension of the FPSO vessel, which will operate for 25 years at the Rosebank field without drydocking.
Among our FPSO and FSO conversions, we are working on a few retrofitting and upgrading projects with various sustainable technologies. The FPSO Firenze is getting ready to sail away from our yard, set
we’re looking to expand our capabilities in the maritime energy construction sector. To echo DP World, our parent company, the international maritime and energy sectors need smart, integrated solutions to ensure sustainable production and to successfully transition equipment and vessels for the future.
EO: What differentiates your company from the competition?
to operate in the Baleine Field, off Ivory Coast. This major renovation project was a huge undertaking by the Drydocks team and had crossed four million Lost Time Injury (LTI) free manhours by January 2023.
Our contract with Malaysian FPSO specialist Yinson in 2022 to upgrade, refurbish and convert a vessel due to be deployed at Enauta’s Atlanta field offshore Brazil is another one we’re proud of, as it is truly symbolic of our global reach and our growing importance for customers around the world.
Last year, we also signed a contract with Norwaybased Kanfa to deliver a topside module for a floating production storage and offloading vessel, scheduled for delivery in Q2 2023. The module will be used to process crude oil received from oil wells and will be placed on the main deck of the FPSO.
On the business transformation side of our work,
RA: Drydocks World’s unique value proposition is a result of a mix of factors, including our service offering matrix, our strategic location in the UAE, and our standard for excellence. We are constantly investing in increasing our yard capacity and upgrading our technology to better service our customers, which, coupled with an everexpanding range of services offered, make us uniquely placed to handle even the most bespoke requests. Being located in Dubai, and part of the DP World portfolio of companies is also a huge advantage for us. Not only is the UAE’s strategic location connecting us with the rest of the world through important trade routes, but Dubai is also renowned for being an economically, politically, and socially stable country. This means that we’re able to work on projects that take multiple months to complete without interference.
Lastly, our reputation precedes us. We are known in the industry for our punctuality, standard of excellence, and thoroughness. This is our business card in the industry and is one that we take great pride in, but we also know that without our people’s talent, our restless drive to innovate, and our ambition to expand into more areas of the market, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
EO: What does the next year look like for the company?
RA: The industry at large may face some headwinds in the next 12 months, but I’m excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. We’re expanding our yard, investing in new technologies to grow our service offering, and working with new clients to venture into new markets.
Writer: Kirsty Biddiscombe, UK Head for AI, ML and Analytics
Data is like water; it’s always flowing, you cannot survive without access to it, and it’s constantly being used, cleaned, and recycled.
But dirty water, is largely unusable – left to stagnate in water tanks or storage, it’s quickly forgotten and got rid of. When we treat that water with care and ensure it’s clean, we allow for the reallocation and consistent use and re-use of it in different ways in everyday life.
Data is the same. If firms do not have accessible, clean, secure and consistent data, artificial intelligence (AI) projects will not survive.
With the release of a series of ground-breaking models, in recent times, the popularity in AI language models has increased. This has led many on the internet to question whether we’re on the edge of an
android apocalypse.
However, AI’s true potential lies in its ability to serve as a tool to streamline processes – no matter the size or scale of the project.
Proof of AI’s increasing integration was highlighted in McKinsey’s 2022 State of AI report. It demonstrated that AI adoption has more than doubled since 2017, with 50 percent of organisations saying they now use AI in at least one business area.
This adoption has been helping
businesses in industries such as retail and utilities to innovatively serve the needs of their organisations and customers. However, it’s in manufacturing where AI is having the biggest impact.
AI-based products such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) are facilitating smart factories that can optimise increasingly complex, multi-stage processes. These tools are enabling them to become more sustainable, efficient and cost-effective.
But questions for businesses looking to integrate AI into their manufacturing processes remain - where do I start? And how do I ensure clean data is at the heart of the process?
High performing AI solutions within manufacturing require secure and clean data. That is because of the long-standing dependence on legacy systems which have meant that data storage has dropped down the priority list.
Luckily, we’re starting to see a mindset shift thanks to the digitalisation of the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing CIOs now understand the importance of not just collecting and inputting data, but storing it in a safe and clean way, which is necessary when it comes to storing industry leading secrets or people’s data, for example.
By promoting the belief that effective manufacturing applications begin with data, and this data needs to be cleaned and stored in a safe and secure way, businesses will be able to plan and deliver more successful AI-powered projects.
As many leaders within the manufacturing industry know, how you choose to approach your data
management can make or break a project. Currently, data scientists lose around 80 percent of their working hours on collecting, clearing, and detecting defective data – instead of creating actionable insights.
As mentioned previously, like water, clean data is essential for training AI algorithms so it can make more accurate predictions around priorities such as impending plant breakdowns or machine downtime.
When it comes to training AI algorithms, using unclean data can be detrimental. Better data hygiene helps businesses seamlessly integrate information into existing software programmes. They can then deploy AI to automate the process – driving better efficiency and productivity.
But the success of AI projects in manufacturing rests heavily on the quality and quantity of the data it processes – the better the data, the better the results.
When implementing any technology tools into your tech stack, they should bring strategic value and add to the day-to-day functioning of your business. It’s no different for AI.
Leaders should consider what’s needed for AI integration to be successful, such as the costs, challenges and any limitations. But the right approach, with the right partner on board, should have an immediate, cheaper and more sophisticated impact.
Across manufacturing, AI integration might look like introducing intelligent machine maintenance, improving the efficiency of quality control, becoming more agile
with supply chain management or increasing AI-powered automation for running better processes.
Ensuring success in these areas is also about the people using the technology – how they use it, the way they embed it into the process, and whether they use it to its full potential. So, leaders need to ensure they’re leading from the top and showing their employees that these tools are useful in order to ensure the success of the deployment. Implementing sometimes complex technology can be daunting, but ensuring your people understand it and are able to use it to their best ability is vital. Leaders need to focus on investing in training so the whole business can embrace the innovation.
In today’s market, AI has the potential to provide a huge competitive advantage for companies in manufacturing, but only if it’s set up and used in the right way. Starting with the right data set – which is clean and secure – is essential. Truly transforming a business’ approach to data and technology will prove AI’s potential.
Kirsty
Biddiscombe is the AI, ML and Analytics Lead for NetApp’s UK and Ireland business. She plays a crucial role in driving successful engagement in AI, ML, and Data Analytics, supporting organisations to achieve their business objectives around their AI presence.
Writer: Phoebe Harper | Project Manager: Dave West
As the largest growing consumer goods sector in the UK, we tackle the contentious topic of vaping and the pressing need for an evidence-based approach to promote a healthier alternative to smoking
Although a phenomenon that has exploded in recent years, vaping is an undeniably controversial issue.
In a media storm that continues to favour clickbaithorror stories frequently plagued with misinformation and falsities, the true purpose and value of the industry – as an undeniably healthier alternative for adults looking to quit smoking – is being obscured in an endless game of smoke and mirrors.
As a result of an overwhelmingly negative media barrage, it has been reported that only a third of adult smokers are aware that vaping is a significantly less harmful option to smoking, despite widespread agreement from both medical professionals and the government confirming the same. Indeed, in 2022 data from the Office of National Statistics showed that smoking rates are now at their lowest levels since records began, crediting vaping as playing a ‘major role’ in that decrease, a conclusion further bolstered by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Nevertheless, the industry today must confront the stark reality of the environmental issues and waste implications of a habit that primarily relies on singleuse devices, and the fact that the number of children vaping aged between 11-17 has doubled within the past two years alone (as reported by a YouGov survey for Action on Smoking and Health).
The latter represents the industry’s greatest hurdle, as it seeks to impose more stringent regulations regarding the illegal sale of vaping devices to children, and the policing of marketing tactics that are at risk of targeting a young audience. In addition, manufacturing innovation is needed to promote the use of environmentally-friendly materials and recyclable alternatives, steering consumers away from disposable models.
The comparative health benefits of vaping to smoking make the industry a critical public health tool if the UK is to reach its ambition of being smoke-free by 2030. In addition, its economic benefits cannot be understated – not just in terms of revenue, but also in terms of saving costs for our overburdened public health system. In 2019, this translated to an estimated cost saving of over £300 million (as reported by the UK Vaping Industry Association).
However, the advantages that vaping can bring to the UK’s well-being, both in terms of public health and economically speaking, can only be realised both sensibly, and sustainably, if we fully acknowledge an evidence-based approach over misinformation – one that paves the way for regulating industry activity, and keeping vapes out of the hands of children.
Championing the vision of a smoking-free future for the nation, we highlight the work of the leading trade association behind the UK’s £1 billion vaping industry
Founded in 2016 as a non-profit trade organisation to support, educate and inform its key stakeholders, while also acting as a unified voice for the industry, UKVIA is run by its members, for its members. Director General, John Dunne, tells us more.
EME Outlook (EO): Firstly, could you introduce us to the association – when were you founded and what is your vision?
John Dunne, Director General (JD): We are proud to have grown to become the UK’s biggest vape trade association working for our members to champion our industry and help fully realise the enormous potential for change that vaping can bring to adult smokers.
The UKVIA regularly engages with government officials, regulators, parliamentarians, trading standards departments, the media and other interested stakeholders to promote the industry and call for fair and sensible regulation.
With vaping gaining record levels of media coverage –much of it negative, misleading or just out-and-out false – as well as politicians facing demands to introduce even more regulations, our role is more vital than ever.
Our vision is quite simple. We want smoking to become
a thing of the past in the UK. There are between 5.6 and 6.6 million adult smokers in the UK and we want every one of them to be aware that vaping could be the one thing that helps them quit cigarettes.
We can help do this by cutting through all the negativity in the mainstream media about vaping and providing the evidence-based facts about vaping so that the public health benefits of switching from smoking are fully realised.
EO: What is your current take on the UK’s £1.3 billion vaping industry? Is it facing many challenges, such as the media’s perception of the health effects of vaping?
JD: When it comes to encouraging adult smokers to quit and regulating the vaping industry, the UK is often held up as the ‘gold standard’ for other countries to follow.
The Government, the NHS, regulatory authorities and influential members of the scientific community recognise that vaping plays a major role in helping adult smokers quit – in fact, for many former smokers, it has been the only method that has ever worked.
It is crucial that the Government continues to support vaping. The review by Dr Javed Khan into the Government’s smokefree goals said it would miss the
target by at least seven years unless it took decisive action, including ‘the promotion of vaping as an effective tool to help people to quit smoking tobacco’.
The latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data shows that smoking rates are at their lowest levels since records began and describes how ‘vaping has played a major role’ in this decrease.
In 2015 Public Health England (PHE) concluded that vaping was ‘at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking’ and PHE’s replacement, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), confirmed the figure last year and concluded that it was clear that ‘vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking’.
But this does not match with how the mainstream media reports on vaping. The red tops in particular seem content to chase clicks by printing vaping horror stories which have no basis in fact.
Not only is this irresponsible, but it is costing lives by discouraging smokers from switching - only a third of adult smokers are aware that vaping is a far less harmful alternative.
Concerns about the environment and youth uptake are big challenges for the industry, but we are working hard to find solutions to these while working to realise the full potential of vaping to help smokers quit.
EO: What role does research play in the association’s work?
JD: Research is fundamental to the UKVIA’s work and a lot of our time and effort goes into making sure that our members, regulators, government agencies and other key stakeholders have evidence-based facts at their disposal.
We have seen how disinformation in the media about vaping is having a negative effect on smokers and the same, sadly, is true about other interested parties including the medical profession, politicians and the public.
It is of vital importance to state the facts about the relative risks of vaping compared with smoking – backed up by hard evidence – so that smokers can make informed decisions about how they consume nicotine.
But the vaping industry is much more than just a tool to help smokers quit, which is why we recently commissioned the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) to produce an Economic Impact Report on the value the industry added to the economy.
Among the findings of the report were that the UK vape industry’s aggregate turnover was valued at £2.8 billion last year; the sector supported almost 18,000 full time equivalent jobs in retail, manufacturing and the supply chain, and the estimated cost saving to NHS of smokers switching to vaping was over £300 million in 2019 alone.
We also do a lot of our own internal research to plan our activities, keep our members informed and come up with evidence-backed policies to help the industry fulfil its potential to assist the Government in meeting its smokefree 2030 ambitions.
The UKVIA regularly provides evidence to support the industry for Government consultations on vaping
regulations such as our ‘Blueprint for Better Regulation’, which drew heavily on published research and data to highlight how UK vaping regulations could be amended to encourage more smokers to quit.
EO: Could you tell us more about VApril Awareness Month?
JD: VApril is the hugely successful UKVIA-led annual month-long campaign to promote vaping awareness amongst UK smokers.
Over the last six years it has established itself as the largest vaping education campaign in the world as countries around the globe use our resources to cut through the misinformation about vaping and give their smokers the facts they need.
Created and delivered by the UKVIA, VApril is dedicated to helping smokers choose the right vaping device, flavours and nicotine strengths that will give them the best chance to quit smoking.
We have full information on our VApril.org website and during the month we will run a paid social media campaign aimed at answering the most common questions that smokers have about vaping.
For 2023 we have produced a new guide to vaping responsibly – which covers everything from how you can take a responsible approach to vaping in public to disposing of your device in an environmentally-friendly way.
We also encourage vapers to give advice to current smokers looking to switch by using #VapingWorks on social media, and there is an easy-to-follow five-step ‘start vaping – quit smoking’ plan on the VApril.org website.
EO: Are there any other initiatives, events or projects the UKVIA is working on that you would like to highlight?
JD: We have just held the first ever environmental summit for the vaping sector which brought together political, regulatory, environmental, recycling, consumer and vape industry experts to help deliver a ‘Greenprint for Sustainable Vaping’.
This is a very emotive issue, and we recognise that more must be done to help mitigate the effects on the environment without impacting the proven ability to help smokers quit.
This virtual summit brought together stakeholders with a key role to play in the greening of the vaping sector and put the spotlight on the whole supply chain from product innovation through to the waste being handled and dealt with.
Some of the best scientific minds in the industry are working hard to find more environmentally friendly materials for vaping products, especially single-use devices, but this is not exclusively an issue for the vaping industry to solve as regulators, policymakers and consumers all have a role to play.
Youth vaping is another topic which is gaining massive media attention and the UKVIA is clear that vaping is an
adult-only activity designed to help smokers quit. This is why we have recently updated our ‘Preventing Underage Sales Guide’ for UK retailers and why we are calling for fines of up to £10,000 per instance for those who deliberately sell to children.
Finally, on 10th November in London, we will be hosting our annual UKVIA Forum and Industry Recognition Awards where we debate pressing issues, celebrate our successes and recognise those who have made an exceptional contribution to vaping over the year.
EO: How do you see the industry developing over the next decade or so?
JD: Given that so much can happen in this fast-paced industry over a few weeks or months, it is very difficult to predict what things will be like in a decade or more.
I can certainly see more of a push into the convenience sector with expanded product offerings. Technological advances will no doubt continue, and the industry will also respond to both consumer demand and any changes required by regulators.
EO: Finally, what are the UKVIA’s key priorities within that future?
PB: Our priorities will remain the same which are to represent our members, speak up for the industry, highlight the great power for good that vaping has to transform the lives of adult smokers for the better, and to push back against excessive or unreasonable regulation.
We will continue to fully engage with governments, the media, regulators and all relevant stakeholders so that smokers can be better informed about vaping and to give the UK the best possible chance to finally become smoke free.
“OUR VISION IS QUITE SIMPLE. WE WANT SMOKING TO BECOME A THING OF THE PAST IN THE UK”
– JOHN DUNNE, DIRECTOR GENERAL, UKVIA
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As an innovative construction business with a diverse workforce underpinning a creative approach to its extensive project portfolio, Bouygues Travaux Publics is thriving. We explore further with Executive Vice President, Vincent Avrillon
Writer: Ed Budds | Project Manager: Ryan Gray
Independent Substation Services Ltd (INDSS) was established in 2011 as a specialist High Voltage and Low Voltage electrical engineering company. We offer a varied range of services such as:
• Transformer and switchgear maintenance
• Transformer and switchgear supply, installation, commissioning and testing
• Cable jointing and terminating
• Fault finding / emergency call out
We work within private networks offering services to end users and operators of electrical equipment. Our customer base varies from biomass sites, high rise buildings and hotels to construction projects and everything in between. Recently our larger projects included a major HV and LV systems retrofit at the Lanesborough Hotel in London whilst keeping the hotel operational; and the installation and commissioning of the entire HV supply to the HS 2 South Portal site in Rickmansworth.
Europe’s construction industry is intrinsically bonded to the prosperity of the European economy.
This plentiful sector provides 18 million direct jobs, contributes to around nine percent of the EU’s overall GDP, and possesses the crucial ability to create new employment opportunities, drive economic growth, and provide solutions for social, climate and energy challenges.
Part of this vast network is Bouygues Travaux Publics (BYTP), who has evolved efficiently to secure its esteemed standing as a global player in construction. Founded in 1952, BYTP remains family owned to this day.
The vastly experienced company designs, builds and operates projects in the building, infrastructure and industrial sectors, and as a responsible and committed leader in sustainable construction, BYTP sees innovation as its primary source of added value. This crucial quality is viewed by the company as “shared innovation” that benefits its customers, whilst simultaneously improving its productivity and the working conditions of its 32,400 employees.
“I was immediately attracted to the construction industry, as it’s
As a local development player, BYTP is committed to the following principles:
• Respecting the fundamental human rights, interests, cultures and values of its employees and the communities in which it operates.
• Developing and valuing the skills, diversity, quality of work life and cohesion of all its employees.
• Participating in the social and economic development of the territories where it operates through employment, integration, training and community partnerships.
• Addressing environmental issues at every stage of the company’s projects, in particular by reducing carbon footprint, preventing pollution, preserving biodiversity and sourcing responsible resources.
• Limiting waste through the promotion of the circular economy.
The construction and infrastructure industries are undergoing a massive shift. With pressure from shareholders and the need to comply with a growing raft of legislation, work sites are increasingly insisting on net zero and carbon neutral operations. One way to help achieve this is to choose site welfare products which minimise fuel use and emissions.
Over the past two years, UK manufacturer Boss Cabins has been helping sites to go carbon-free with their patented Deep Green 2030 range of welfare cabins and portable toilets, proven to operate almost entirely from solar energy, slashing fuel use and producing virtually zero emissions. Also incorporating rain harvesting, water recycling and vastly reducing the need to visit the site to service the cabins, the Deep Green range has had its carbon savings verified by respected independent industry watchdog Carbon Footprint as well as being shortlisted for two prestigious sustainability awards –edie’s ‘Net Zero Product of the Year’ and ‘Product Innovation of the Year’.
Now after 24 months of data proving how successfully Deep Green units reduce fuel use and emissions on site, Boss Cabins has taken its solar innovation one step further with the launch of the patent-pending GenFree range. This 100 percent silent running welfare cabin range is the world’s first towable welfare range with no on-board generator at all. With all electrical power supplied by an advanced solar system with extendable arrays and vertical panels, this breakthrough in site welfare is available for demo now.
For more information, contact Boss Cabins on 01778 300475.
bosscabins.co.uk
something that I believe some people just have in their blood,” introduces Vincent Avrillon, Executive Vice President of BYTP.
“I started off by resisting many other career paths, such as joining a car manufacturer or chemistry company. Banks at that time were also starting to recruit lots of engineers, but I was attracted by construction only, and the nature of seeing the things being built every day was really important to me.”
Having joined the company in 1990 as part of an overseas training programme, launched as a specific French opportunity, Avrillon travelled to Australia to continue his development, later moving to Hong Kong, then back to Australia once more, before
returning home to Paris with BYTP.
“I now focus on managing tenders, delivering projects, trying to build success and training people to be the future of the company,” he sets out.
Avrillon believes that the European construction market finds itself in a difficult position at present. The UK, for example, is having to navigate the ever-increasing difficulties left in the wake of the complicated fallout from Brexit and now more recently, the war in Ukraine.
These challenges continue to have a negative effect and slow progress on all current projects for the entire construction industry.
Victor Products Ltd is the world’s leading manufacturer of electrical connectors and lighting for the global mining and tunnelling industry.
Trust is Earned, Never Given. Nowhere is this truer than at the bottom of a mine shaft. Victor Products Ltd, established in 1929, has over 90 years’ experience offering world class customer service, technical support and outstanding engineering services and support. Victor Products is able to specify and provide the specific solution to suit our customer’s requirements.
The electrical connector range covers voltages up to 11,000V and currents up to 750A. Victor Products Ltd has developed a range of LED lighting designed specifically for the arduous environments found in mining and tunnelling.
www.victor.co.uk
“I WAS IMMEDIATELY ATTRACTED TO THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY, AS IT’S SOMETHING THAT I BELIEVE SOME PEOPLE JUST HAVE IN THEIR BLOOD”
– VINCENT AVRILLON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BOUYGUES TRAVAUX PUBLICS
Find
Victor Products Ltd.
Unit 3A
Tyne Dock East Side
Port of Tyne
South Shields
Tyne & Wear
NE33 5SQ
Tel: +44 (0) 191 280 8000
Email: sales@victor.co.uk
Web: https://www.victor.co.uk
Victor Products Ltd manufactures an extensive range of explosion protected electrical connectors and lighting primarily for the underground coal mining and tunnelling industry We have been proudly nominated as a key partner by Vincent & Anne-Sophie DUC DODON, Project Management Officer of ALIGN JV & Bouygues. Our products for the tunnelling industry increase efficiency and improve safety. This further recognition increases Victor’s reputation throughout the mining/tunnelling industry that the products we design, and manufacture are second to none.
Victor Products Ltd is the global headquarters of the Victor Group of companies with manufacturing facilities in the UK and South Africa. In addition, there is a network of agents available throughout the world to supply local solutions. Research and development are a constant, with the portfolio of products expanding, and the addition of individual country’s approvals of the existing product range.
One of the most distinguishing features of Victor Products is its quality level which is recognised throughout the world. In addition, customers regularly comment on the depth of product knowledge the team at Victor Products Ltd can draw upon to provide engineering solutions.
Victor Products is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Federal Signal Corporation of Chicago. Registered Office: Victor Products Ltd, Unit 3A, Tyne Dock East Side, Port of Tyne, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE33 5SQ. Reg. in England No. 06531201.
“Despite these obstacles, the French market remains prosperous, mainly thanks to the Grand Paris Metro Project. Apart from that, however, it’s not a booming market across Europe right now,” he explains.
Ever since it was founded, BYTP has consistently sought to bring people together by combining aesthetics, technicality, practicality, and safety for users through total mastery of all the techniques involved in the construction of bridges, tunnels and other projects.
“We have always tried to be at the forefront of the market in terms of innovation, safety, the equipment we
are using on site, and design,” Avrillon informs us.
“We are very proud of our design approach, as when we look at a project, the first thing we do is try to challenge the design, change it, modify it and find alternatives that will save time and money, and we regard this as our greatest strength.”
Some of the bridges that BYTP has built have become casebook examples for the construction industry, such as the Hong KongZhuhai-Macao Bridge, the world’s longest sea bridge between Macao and Hong Kong, the Avignon Viaducts and the New Coastal Road viaduct,
TANKS-UK has successfully partnered with Align JV to provide Firewater Reserve Tank Systems. In addition, they have supplied the HS2 project and other large construction projects with Portable Bowsers for Water or Fuel Dispensing, Combination units with AdBlue®, Trailed Bowers for dust suppression and Static High-Volume Storage Tanks in plastic or steel.
To provide a seamless and complete service, TANKS-UK carries a comprehensive range of pumps, fittings and accessories, giving turnkey liquid handling solutions for your requirements.
We look forward to your call. Sales helpline +44 1953 665 948 or sales@ tanks-uk.com
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linking Saint-Denis to La Grande Chaloupe.
One particularly successful project that remains very special to the company is the Grand Paris Express, Metro Line 15.
“Paris is our garden, so we definitely wanted to be involved with building the Grand Paris Metro. When the project started five years ago now, we had not built tunnels in France for maybe 10 years, so one of the challenges for us was to upskill a new generation of tunnellers, workers and young engineers,” Avrillon illustrates.
“Traditionally, we are very good at design and building when we work overseas, but we were not always so successful in France, so it’s the start of a new era and a new way of delivering major projects in France,” he details passionately.
Another key area of development for the company is through investment in the offshore wind farm business.
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TANKS-UK is the leading supplier for a range of Tanks and Liquid Handling Systems across Construction, Agriculture, Industry and Domestic
Supported by a wide selection of pumps, fittings and accessories, we tailor systems to meet each customer’s requirements on request. We provide free technical support, friendly advice and unrivalled service levels.
Ducrocq Engineers specialises in the design and manufacturing of equipment dedicated to extremely challenging environments, including infrastructure construction projects (tunnels and railway works), energy markets (oil, gas and hydroelectricity) and industry.
Learn more
“We acquired a design concept of a floating solution last year, as the offshore wind farm market is an important target for us. It is a marine works, heavy concrete structure, and will allow industrialisation of the construction as well as being a way to demonstrate our ambition in terms of our ongoing carbon emissions reduction strategy.”
Above all, BYTP is committed to building a workplace in which all individuals feel supported and respected. To get the best from its highly valued staff, the company knows that it must nurture a culture and an environment that embraces difference.
“To remain competitive and to differentiate us in the construction market, we know that our people will be more productive and engaged if they feel ‘well’ at work,” explains Avrillon.
“We aim to educate all members of staff about the importance of a diverse and inclusive workplace to achieve business success, and we focus on providing career opportunities for all key talent in a fair and equitable way,” he adds. BYTP’s diversity and inclusion goals are supported by graduate schemes and comprehensive learning and development programmes throughout the employee life cycle, including mentoring and recruiting activities.
“To be even more specific, in a male dominated industry, we aim at realising gender equality throughout
all key employee experiences including recruitment, performance and remuneration reviews and development opportunities,” Avrillon elaborates further.
Additionally, BYTP has envisioned several key gender balance objectives, as the company remains convinced that it needs to change. Today, all executive leader bonuses are tied to different targets, including gender balance goals, as BYTP strives to ensure that its workforce is free of any harassment or discrimination.
As a company, BYTP believes that whatever the level of someone’s profession within its structures,
“WE MUST SEDUCE US CONTRACTORS TO WORK WITH US AND DEMONSTRATE WHAT WE CAN BRING TO THE TABLE”
– VINCENT AVRILLON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BOUYGUES TRAVAUX PUBLICS
you need to achieve your goal with the support of our expert team.
Whether you are starting from a trench, working your way up, or giving a structure a new lease of life, we can provide you with the support you need to bring your structure to life in the most efficient, cost-effective and safe way.
training is a key driver in the development of people. In this way, careful attention is paid to every individual’s needs to help them develop towards their highest potential. Everyone’s career path is treated in an individualised way, which opens the maximum number of opportunities for career development within the group.
One of the signature projects of BYTP’s ever-expanding portfolio is HS2, a high-speed rail line that will provide a non-stop link between Birmingham and London, UK, which
is a prosperous market for the company.
The Align joint venture, consisting of BYTP, Sir Robert McAlpine and Volker Fitzpatrick, is managing the design and construction of the 21.6 km Central 1 (C1) section, to the northwest of London, which includes a 3.4km viaduct over the Colne Valley and a twin-bore 16km tunnel through the Chiltern hills.
“HS2 is the longest tunnel we have ever built, and together with the viaduct it is quite a sophisticated and iconic project. The project is on-track with reference to budget and timing, so it’s a real success in the UK, and we are very proud of it“ Avrillon acclaims.
Align is using variable-density tunnel boring machines, a technology that has already been used by BYTP across projects in Hong Kong and on the Grand Paris Express project, which adapt excavations to the specific geological conditions of the terrain. The complex work carried out also included the construction of cross passages between the two tunnels, as well as the installation of five ventilation shafts.
Also located in the UK, BYTP is particularly proud of the Hinkley Point C (HPC) project. This sizeable undertaking consisted of the construction of a power station that
©
HS2 Ltd
houses two nuclear reactors.
EDF Energy awarded the project to BYTP, working as part of a larger consortium with the British company Laing O’Rourke, taking on the contract to construct the buildings that will house the two European pressurised reactor (EPR) nuclear reactors at HPC. With a total capacity of 3.2 gigawatts, the plant will supply a staggering seven percent of the UK’s electricity consumption and provide power to over five million homes.
BYTP has identified that the key to growing the business further, is to constantly endeavour to develop a diverse pool of international talent.
“The construction industry is not what it once was, and we now need to make sure that our partners, suppliers and contractors will stay in the business with us for 10, 20 or even 30 years to help build mutually advantageous
relationships,” Avrillon outlines.
Looking forward, North America will certainly play a crucial part in BYTP’s expansion strategy for new projects, as the company has collectively decided to focus more on the US market.
Now, with a strong team established in Miami, BYTP has secured several ongoing tenders, which are mainly tunnels because of the positive reputation that the company has forged in this project category.
“We are well established in Australia, Hong Kong, France and of course the UK, so now the focus is on the US,” he continues.
“The competition is sophisticated, with many local and European contractors working out there, and the level of the financial returns is good so it’s a place where we really want to work more regularly. We must seduce US contractors to work with us and demonstrate what we can bring to the table.”
Continuing to build prosperous
relationships with local partners will be at the forefront of the new strategy across the US. Similarly, thanks to the HS2 and HPC projects, BYTP now boasts an impressive and growing pool of talent in the UK, and offers to relocate staff to the US, Australia, Hong Kong or elsewhere for future jobs and new contracts if they are interested.
“Ultimately, we need to make sure that we are not only a French contractor employing French people working overseas. Instead, we must be seen as a more international company with international talents at our disposal,” he concludes.
Knightsbridge Development Corporation is championing social housing and large-scale project development from Canada. We speak to Will Smith, President and CEO, about the company’s central mission and its latest developments across the world
Writer: Marcus Kääpä | Project Manager: Nicholas Kernan
We are at a point in our industry where technology is taking us to new heights in sustainability, the race to carbon neutrality, and timber construction, all with the assistance of truly talented architects, engineers and owners dedicated to building better buildings - it’s an exciting time to be in Canadian construction.”
For Will Smith, President and CEO of Knightsbridge Development Corporation (KDC), the construction sector across the North American region is one of bountiful opportunity and incredible potential, spearheaded by a digital drive that is seeing technology assist development like never before. Digital tools such as building
information modelling (BIM), artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D printing have broadened the ability to enhance creativity and streamline construction operations throughout the industry.
With offices across Canada, KDC is part of a larger group of companies that includes KDC UK in England, as well as Desarrollos Knightsbridge (Desarrollos) and PanAm Construction Managers (PanAm) both with a presence in South America, which allows KDC to service the whole American continent on top of the UK and Europe.
In all geographic regions, KDC offers development management, construction management, project management, advisory services, and facilities management services as a
third-party provider.
“We have represented and continue to represent major publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), RioCan, Allied Properties, ExxonMobil, Haworth International, Selfridges, and many others, as well as private companies,” Smith explains.
KDC’s primary focus is on largescale projects in the areas of office towers, mixed-use development, hospitality, and high-street retail projects, which support sustainability, innovation, and environmental stewardship both from a construction perspective and a developmental point of view. Typically, this means repurposing rather than demolishing existing structures wherever possible,
WILL SMITH, PRESIDENT AND CEO: “My educational background was in civil engineering, however after graduation, I quickly determined I did not want a career solely as a consulting engineer. I was fortunate to find an entry role in the development and construction industry, which, combined with my family’s construction businesses, created the base for my career. From there I built on the opportunities that arose through roles as a Project Manager, Director and Vice President, before ultimately reaching the level of President and CEO at KDC, at which time I also received my master’s in real estate. The culmination of these experiences resulted in my ability to work on construction projects in North America, Latin and South America, Europe and the UK as well as Asia over the past 30 years.”
or alternatively re-using building elements such as old timbers, significant architectural components, and multiple other facets.
“We carry out this work through talented teams of people, working locally in their markets, and utilising what we learn globally across all the offices,” Smith adds. “Our teams are small, tight-knit communities who embrace not only our clients and the projects, but one another, in an environment of collaboration, respect, and diversity.
“Our company mission is to provide client-focused real estate advisory services through world-class intellectual capital and resources, and to design and execute customised solutions that create value for our clients by locally applying what we learn globally. We provide our clients with a flexible and effective platform to support current and future opportunities and challenge the status quo with thoughtful consideration of a better future.”
KDC’s impressive work is exemplified by the broad portfolio of projects
that it has undertaken in Canada and abroad. One such Canadian project is The Well, made up of offices, retail space, condominium and rental apartments located close to Toronto’s bustling waterfront and business district.
The Well sets the standard for work-live-play developments in North America by creating a seamless coexistence of office, retail and residential uses through high-quality design supported by exceptional public transit connectivity, with an overall focus on sustainability that includes incorporating district energy and LEED Platinum and Gold Building Design.
“In addition, the project has achieved WELL certification which assesses human health and wellbeing performance in buildings, using standards developed by the WELL Building Institute,” says Smith. “On top of this, The Well has gained WiredScore certification, which provides transparency on the quality of internet connectivity in office spaces and access information; the internet is among the top three most important factors for tenants who are
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The Well project adds a total of 2.9 million square feet (sqft) of new developments to Toronto on a single 7.76-acre site, comprising retail (432,772 sqft – 15 percent of site area) which includes a European-inspired food hall, office (1,040,484 sqft – 36 percent of site area), and residential (1,430,733 sqft – 49 percent of site area) made up of 723,538 sqft of premium rental apartments and 707,235 sqft of luxury condominium apartments.
“These all combine to make The Well a city within a city where the concept of work, play, live exists in all facets including an abundance of open public space and amenities.”
From North America to the middle and south of the continent, KDC’s Latin American office in Escazú, Costa Rica is focused on two main economic activities: hospitality and social
“KDC played a pivotal role in guiding The Well, a joint venture with RioCan and Allied Properties. The primary responsibility was to act as the owner’s representative for both companies. They performed this role with a great deal of professionalism and were particularly good at managing the two companies’ interests, finding common ground solutions, and ensuring that the project proceeded smoothly in very uncertain times. This was a very complicated project with two different construction managers. Despite this, I was able to ensure the two construction companies coordinated and stayed on task. My experience allowed me to provide value from the schematic phase of the project through tendering, and finally construction.”
housing. Specific to the company’s hospitality projects, KDC embraces and offers clients the ability to create amazing hotel and resort properties that follow guiding principles of ecofriendly development.
“We create experiences in these projects that minimise the use of automobiles and asphalt work in the natural terrain, flora and fauna, but still create an amazing guest experience,” Smith elaborates. “Primarily, our projects are a mix of wellness-based properties and luxury eco-hotels. We are hoping to break ground early in 2023 on our latest project in the south of the country, our first in this region.
“Our other focus is social housing, which we see as an opportunity to give back in the form of non-profit housing developments for the lower wage earners in Costa Rica. This housing project represents a great attempt to avoid what has happened in other countries in the region - an ever-increasing gap in quality of living - with our goal being to reduce that gap by working through privatepublic partnerships.”
These homes have been conceptualised to be affordable, durable, sustainable, and most importantly, reflective of the traditional homes in Costa Rica and with a connection to nature.
Social housing is indeed one of KDC’s primary focuses. As with the company’s work in Costa Rica, to date, KDC has been focused on traditional development and construction projects in conventional sectors. However, late in 2022, the company began to focus on what it sees as a global issue - the affordability of housing and its impacts on society.
“Our concept is to look at social housing in a community model, instead of an isolation or segregation model where new housing development is inclusive of various socio-economic groups, to encourage
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adjusted rental rates that address the impact of housing costs as a percentage of net income for those needing assistance while carrying market rents for others,” Smith tells us.
“In the UK, this sliding scale will assist in the housing of seniors on fixed pensions, students, as well as those living in poverty, while at the same time blending all groups into a broader community where they can be inter-mixed and supportive of each other.”
On top of adding housing stock, the new developments will provide commercial spaces for local shops and services, open public space, and be located on or near major transit lines, forming a smaller version of a true mixed-use development.
Sustainability and architectural control are key to KDC’s concept. The company embraces working with brownfield sites and maintaining and repurposing existing buildings.
“We have found older industrial buildings are well suited for conversion into residential units; in
doing this, the history, architecture and the fabric of a community can be respected,” Smith continues. “Our approach to sustainability is not just tied to our building practices, but also to minimising the cost of operating and maintaining the properties in the short- and long-term.”
In the UK, KDC believes that its concept can be adapted to all areas throughout the country. However, at this time, the company is proposing to focus on three distinctly different regions: Greater London, Birmingham in the West Midlands, and Newcastle in Northumberland. The statistics are very similar in each location when it comes to average housing costs,
amounting to almost 60 percent of net income, with 41 percent of those aged 15-19 in households living in poverty.
“While geographically varied, all three cities share the common need for more social housing units to service similar segments of the community in the form of students, low-income families, and seniors,” Smith says. “We want to help create a solution that works.”
KDC works with its clients to create sustainable environments, choosing cradle-to-cradle materials and products whenever possible as part
“OUR TEAMS ARE SMALL TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITIES WHO EMBRACE NOT ONLY OUR CLIENTS AND THE PROJECTS, BUT ONE ANOTHER, IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF COLLABORATION, RESPECT, AND DIVERSITY”
– WILL SMITH, PRESIDENT AND CEO, KNIGHTSBRIDGE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
of its involvement in LEED Gold and Platinum-accredited projects. The company works hard at maintaining strong ties and open lines of communication with clients and partners, and is constantly evaluating and evolving its processes to be greener than the day it first started.
KDC’s long-term goal is to make “reuse” the norm and deliver smart buildings that are energy efficient and provide a healthy environment.
“We strive to repurpose, reinvent, or bring new life to existing buildings as opposed to total demolition or replacement,” Smith affirms. “We believe this to be an essential response in doing our part in achieving our carbon emission reduction targets and lowering our environmental impact.”
There is no doubt that people are at the heart of KDC, and not only when it comes to its international development projects. Internally, KDC embodies such principles, which each team member believes in and lives
by. It is this collective team mindset and environment that has allowed KDC to create a culture based on sustainability both as a company and through the DNA of its projects.
“Having our company culture based on the common beliefs of our team extends beyond our principles on sustainability and is evident in our team composition itself,” Smith adds. “Our team consists of a 50/50 male-female presence, with twothirds of our executive members being female, and on top of this, we are represented by a diverse team encompassing people from varied cultural backgrounds, which is quite unique in the industry.”
This culture is central to the way KDC operates and will be the base from which it propels into the future. Moving forward, the company is planning to start several industrial and logistics facilities projects in 2023 based on the increased demand and limited availability of industrial buildings. This is by no means a
new area of focus for KDC, but it is a market sector the company has not been as involved in for the past decade.
“We are also looking to expand involvement in affordable, social housing in all markets, which is a big push and likely to be a lengthy process,” Smith concludes.
“As we navigate 2023, like many, we feel it is a year to invest in our people, increase our skills and support our loyal clients in achieving their goals in an environment of higher interest rates on capital as well as mixed messaging on demand.”
Collegiate UK is changing perceptions of student accommodation and providing safe spaces for studying and living. We speak to CEO Robert Moyle to learn more
Writer: Rachel Carr | Project Manager: Nicholas KernanCollegiate UK is a dynamic student accommodation business, owned by investment manager Arlington Advisors, providing students with the latest in urban living. Doing more than simply housing the next generation of graduates, Collegiate UK is creating communities.
The buildings are designed, located and developed with its residents in mind, with high-quality finishes, light and stylish spaces, and an array of appealing features. Secure accommodation ensures the students feel safe in their living environment, whilst maintaining an aspect of fun for making connections.
“The important thing is our residents are having fun and live in a safe and secure building where they can connect and study. We understand it is their home and for many of them it is the first time they have lived away from their family. We focus on creating communities, and providing environments where our residents make friends for life, which is also at the right price point,
location and building style for all students,” opens Robert Moyle, CEO of Collegiate UK.
For those paying a premium there are extra facilities, however, Collegiate UK is aware that a gym or karaoke room might not suit everyone’s needs. The company prides itself on catering to students from different income levels and demographics.
“I think the most important element is that we are providing value to the students who are staying with us,” he adds.
Moyle comes from a hospitality background, beginning his career working in hotels in Australia, and gradually climbing the ladder. The transition into student accommodation was not an opportunity to pass up.
“Once I understood the model, I could not see any reason not to join the Purpose-Built Student accommodation (PBSA) sector. The 98 – 100 percent occupancy for 44
to 51 weeks of the year was mindblowing to me. Coming out of hotels I was used to hundreds of staff for a 500-bed property, with occupancy sitting nowhere near 98 percent plus for such prolonged periods. Many of our buildings have in excess of 500 beds and while we don’t have the same staff ratio in student accommodation, it is fundamentally a hospitality product with many similarities to hotels,” reveals Moyle.
As an indication of his early success in the sector, Moyle was transferred from Australia to the UK to assist with the set-up of an operating platform to support the growth of the business for another operator. After taking multiple roles, Moyle then joined investment manager, Arlington Advisors as Director of Operations in 2018.
“While working at Arlington Advisors, the senior management team soon realised that we needed our own platform. We were managing multiple assets utilising five different operators. While this was initially appropriate for the business, as we grew it just wasn’t
efficient. When the opportunity arose to buy an established operational platform for student accommodation, it was the perfect solution and we acquired Collegiate UK” informs Moyle.
The acquisition of Collegiate UK occurred in the midst of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Moyle became CEO and proceeded to move 7,000 beds owned by Arlington’s investors across from five different operators. It was a very challenging two and a half years and Moyle is extremely proud of what the team achieved under very trying circumstances. He brought together the assets owned by Arlington’s investors under one management platform and mobilised an additional three buildings owned by a different asset manager. The company is unique in the fact it is an owner-operator as well as a thirdparty operator.
Moyle believes the PBSA sector is an excellent alternative career in hospitality for individuals who have previously sought a service-based industry.
“I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT IS THAT WE ARE PROVIDING VALUE TO THE STUDENTS WHO ARE STAYING WITH US”
– ROBERT MOYLE, CEO, COLLEGIATE UK
“While there are many professionals in the PBSA industry I saw an opportunity to professionalise it and use my knowledge gained working in hotels to make a career out of it, not only for myself but for others too.”
“The sector is going from strength to strength, and we are looking at a very exciting journey in the next decade in the UK and indeed globally, so there are huge opportunities there,” says Moyle.
Collegiate UK’s position as both an owner-operator and third-party operator is a unique concept, and something that the company finds a competitive advantage.
“Our third-party clients get the benefit of being a part of a bigger organisation. Particularly if they are a smaller asset owner where they might only have one or two buildings, they can plug into a bigger machine and get all the expertise and support that
comes with it,” states Moyle.
With over 15 plus years of experience in the hands-on development and management of purpose-built student accommodation schemes, Collegiate and Arlington Advisors have advised on multiple student accommodation projects and are considered experts in their field. They are focused on building partnerships and supporting asset owners to achieve their financial objectives. There are many aspects to this but at its core, Collegiate UK puts the development of student communities at the heart of everything they do. This focus ensures that students want to continue to stay for another year, supporting investor’s revenue targets.
“We pride ourselves on the bespoke branding around each building. The Neighbourhood, located in Cardiff and Exeter, has its own brand tucked under what we are doing. Therefore, you will see a number of brands covered under
As one of our first and most valued clients, we have assisted Collegiate UK with their procurement needs over the last three and a half years.
From their first order back in 2019, where we provided a single TV, to last summer, where we supplied mattress protectors to every Collegiate bed across the UK.
We work with a number of site managers on a daily basis to ensure their buildings are kept to a great standard and can be enjoyed by staff and students. www.mytss.co.uk
At the Student Shed, we aim to meet all the procurements needs of properties in the Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sector on a Business to Business basis. Providing mattresses, white goods, electronics, maintenance items and more, we have access to discounted prices from some of the best known brands in the country.
Novo Support Services has been actively working with student accommodation and building managements since 2016, providing exceptional support in many aspects of the business. We pride ourselves in a quick and efficient service ranging from turnaround cleaning, window washing, maintenance assistance, gardening needs, painting, refurbishing and many more. We understand the importance of an outstanding appearance of a business and are happy to assist you with whatever your business needs.
the Collegiate UK umbrella.
It is a way of differentiating our offerings. Think of a Hilton or Marriot who has multiple brands under their umbrella – we are similar to that.”
The development of student accommodation across the UK is a
challenging space, mainly due to the pastoral care element. Many students are away from home for the first time, while some are living in an entirely different country.
“An international student could come here and find it very different to what they are used to. So, for us, it’s not only about the bricks and mortar, running the business and looking after investors, the interesting aspect is also ensuring that we are providing a great experience for our residents. We want to create an environment where everyone thrives,” acknowledges Moyle.
Collegiate UK views the students as customers paying for a service, hence quality common spaces and 24-hour security within an environment that gives the residents and their parents peace of mind. The company also
understands the importance of the accommodation being a place that brings people together, who become firm friends outside of university life. The vision is to be the first choice for students by creating the best experiences and providing a home environment where everyone feels safe, comfortable and belongs.
Staff recruitment is a key focus for Collegiate UK. It is important for the business to find intelligent, careerdriven individuals to perpetuate our success. As well as possessing the correct skill set, fitting into the ethos and culture of the company is non-negotiable.
“We have all heard culture eats strategy for breakfast and
at Collegiate UK we work on developing a positive environment. You spend so much of your life working for someone that you want to enjoy what you are doing and be aligned to what is going on,” notes Moyle. “The single most important aspect for our success is the hiring and training of outstanding people who get our culture. Long term this is going to give us a competitive advantage.”
The statement is exemplified by the business waiting for a year to hire a Director of Marketing until the right person was found for the Executive Team. In fact, the Collegiate UK Executive Team was built from scratch.
“How we interact as a team begins at the top and flows through an organisation. We have a lot of
employees that have been with us for a long time, and we have developed their careers into management positions. We have nurtured a lot of junior people along the way, and many have stayed with us,” Moyle says proudly.
The company recognises that by bringing different organisations together, the cultural element within the business is bought into the spotlight and it requires work. In addition to culture, embedding scalable systems and processes to have in place for when the company grows again is also important.
“We already have fantastic systems and people, but we now have an opportunity to look at what we did well and what we can do better. We want to fulfil everything we promise to our customers and investors.”
Having onboarded 7,000 beds in the past two years alone, the company sees a real opportunity to grow in the UK.
“We have recently onboarded two properties in Chester, the last of the assets owned by Arlington’s investors which are to be transferred. Previously, they were managed by another operator. Arlington Advisors is always looking for opportunities to expand the business, and as assets are purchased, the plan is to have Collegiate UK managing them. This is the last piece of a combination of two years hard work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is an amazing story to buy a company, transfer all these buildings under the cloud of COVID-19, to add an extra 100 staff over that period and to then combine the staff of five different operators into one organisation. I don’t know anyone else who has done that during such a challenging time.”
There are two arms of the business to grow - the third-party operator and the owner-operator.
“I am comfortable that in the future there will be other assets onboarded outside the Arlington Advisors portfolio, as we look to expand in the UK.
“Although we see some fantastic opportunities outside of the UK market, the expansion has to be right for our business. Ultimately, we want to grow but the UK is our home for the moment,” Moyle closes.
Collegiate UK endeavours to work more closely with the students, via projects, forums and focus groups, to establish how to improve its future product offering.
“As their asset management company, it is important that the investors get their return. Moreover, from a customer standpoint, we want to make sure that our residents receive an enjoyable experience and make friends for life,” concludes Moyle.
By offering a unique experience for students who want to socialise and study, one thing is clear, Collegiate UK is more than somewhere to live, it is a lifestyle.
Rising phoenix-like from the ashes of an intricate economic downturn, we celebrate 20 years of Tirreno Power – the leading Italian electricity provider powering renewable energy production. General Manager, Fabrizio Allegra, explores the three pillars of a successful turnaround
Writer: Phoebe Harper | Project Manager: Jordan Levey
20 years is an important milestone for any company. To achieve it, we have had to face many important economic, technological, and socio-cultural changes in order to deal with a complex and shifting scenario.”
Tirreno Power stands as one of Italy’s leading electricity producers. As of 2022, the company’s portfolio amounted to an available capacity of approximately 2,500 megawatts (MW) and 5,400 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy fed into the grid. That same year, Tirreno Power covered the annual electricity needs of roughly two million households.
As a major player within both thermoelectricity, and increasingly, hydroelectricity, Tirreno Power’s significance cannot be underplayed as a contributor to the security of the nation’s electricity system through the provision of energy that is both flexible and sustainable.
The company’s sizable footprint currently extends to three thermoelectric operations on the Tyrrhenian coast – Vado Ligure (Savona), Torrevaldaliga Sud (Civitavecchia) and Napoli Levante. Collectively, these sites host four combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) fuelled by natural gas.
Meanwhile, the renewables side of the business firmly establishes Tirreno Power as the leading hydroelectric producer in Liguria in terms of installed capacity, with 18 hydroelectric plants located along the Ligurian Alps and Apennines.
Yet, the prowess of the company today has not always been the case. As 2023 marks Tirreno Power’s 20th anniversary, this seminal milestone is worthy of celebration as the past two decades have witnessed a turbulent history that has seen the company forced to navigate the ever-changing undercurrents of the wholesale electricity market and a volatile economic climate.
200 tons
60 mt UHD
The boiler lowering procedure in the power plant in Vado Ligure (SV Italy) is, for Tirreno Power, an intervention with great attention to detail, carried out with new technologies configured ad hoc to guarantee safety and sustainability.
Armofer Cinerari Luigi srl, the Italian decommissioning leader, based in Siziano (PV) and operating in Italy since 1961, took over the Tirreno Power site in Vado Ligure in July 2021 to undertake the complete decommissioning of the two decommissioned VL3 and VL4 thermoelectric groups.
After the decommissioning of the plant’s insulating materials and the preliminary stages of demolition, having completed all the structural studies and executive details of the steam generators demolition project, Armofer is tackling the work at the heart of the plants: the boilers lowering, completed in January 2023.
Armofer employed state of the art technology, configuring its own hydraulic system.
Drawing on the experience gained in a long series of similar interventions (seven boilers in the last two or three years, all over Italy), Armofer’s Lowering System 2500 is a modular system, consisting of hydraulic jacks and dywidag bars, configured according to the needs of Armofer’s technicians, with the most up-todate technology, in synergy with Enerpac.
The hydraulic lowering system has now become the standard required by the market for the high safety guarantees it offers. In fact, this technology drastically reduces the presence of operating personnel at height, in situations of potential risk due to the height and the use of oxyhydrogen flames for sectioning.
The particular flexibility of the configuration of the Armofer system makes it unique and capable of adapting to the static scheme of the structures, according to the needs of the engineers who, prior to the intervention, study the static scheme of the structure and prepare the methods for taking charge and operating
the system.
The hydraulic rappelling system, conceptually, is quite simple. Its application, on the contrary, is extremely complex. The huge boiler is housed inside an imposing 60 metre high steel girder structure, which supports the actual boiler. It is suspended from the castle by tie rods anchored in the roof. Due to the thermal expansion of the metals of which the boilers are made, they need to be suspended and not rest on the ground. The sophisticated modular hydraulic system consisting of several hydraulic jacks and very high-strength threaded rods is housed in the roof of the plant yoke and the rods are anchored to the boiler body. The system conceptually replaces the original fixed rods.
At this point the structure in charge of the progressive lowering hydraulic system, physically sectioned into each of its accessory parts of piping and installations, is lowered into the castle itself in successive cycles.
It is a matter of monitoring the planned descent, being able to intervene punctually in each part and appropriately alternating the rappelling cycles with the demolition phases of the building from the ground, for the part that remains correctly exposed and accessible to the mechanical demolition excavators.
In the field of demolition from the ground, the biggest machines of the ‘red fleet’ are the Liebherr 960 demolition and the Liebherr 974 demolition.
For the demolition to succeed safely, it is a matter of correctly orchestrating the procedure by calculating every action down to the last detail. There are many variables, and the work begins with analysing the existing static scheme in order to configure the new static scheme with the jacks, calculating their number (which must always be suitably redundant), position, individual calibration, etc. The access to the base created to be able to work with the mechanical excavator is also studied in advance and dimensioned.
Once in place, the hydraulic system remains in
operation for the entire duration of the overall demolition of the 60 metre high building. Each basic rappelling cycle, corresponding to a vertical movement of 70cm, takes around 20 minutes, with a team of nine people on site. The abseiling phase requires lowering the artefact by approximately 15 metres. The ‘lowering’ therefore takes a couple of days each time, then the part that has become accessible (about 15 metres) is demolished by the excavator on the ground. A new lowering phase is repeated, and so on until the entire artefact is brought to the ground.
The modularity of the Armofer Lowering System can count on 36 hydraulic jacks capable of carrying around 103 tonnes each, and leaves the designers with the greatest flexibility in configuration and ease of set-up. There are therefore no limits to the weights to be handled, nor to the heights that can be covered with the modular dywidag bar system.
The Armofer Lowering System 2500 places great emphasis on completely safe operation. The system is semi-automatic and requires explicit manual confirmation by the technicians in charge that they have carefully carried out all the necessary verification procedures to be repeated every time a partial lowering takes place. In addition, the automatic control system constantly displays the load distribution at each point in real time. An automatic safety lockout system comes into operation should it detect an unforeseen drop in pressure at any point.
On the right is the lowering system used on the Vado Ligure units, for each phase. The unit to be moved, totalling 1,950 tonnes, was divided into two blocks for safety reasons, thanks to the configuration of the object consisting of the actual combustion chamber and the economiser, which can be “easily” separated from each other with appropriate service sections.
Phase 1: Lowering VL3
Weight: 867 tonnes
Employed: 18 jacks, capacity 103 ton/each.
Lowering cycles: 4 cycles x 15 m each.
Status: 24/05-16/06 2022
Phase 2: Lowering VL3
Weight: 1,585 tonnes
Employed: 24 jacks, capacity 103 ton/cad.
Lowering cycles: 4 cycles x 15 m c ad.
Status: 7/09-6/10 2022
Phase
Weight: 903 tonnes
Employed: 18 jacks, capacity 103 tons/cad.
Lowering cycles: 4 cycles x 15 m each
Status: 09/11-01/12 2022
Phase
Weight: 1,480 tonnes
Employed: 24 jacks, capacity 103 tons/each.
Lowering cycles: 4 cycles x 15 m c ad.
Status: 16/12/ 2022 - 20/01/2023
combustion chamber economiser 3: Lowering VL4 combustion chamber 4: Lowering VL4 economiserAs General Manager of Tirreno Power, Fabrizio Allegra is all too aware of the evolution and successful journey of transformation that has led the company to where it is today.
“We have had to face many challenges in these 20 years, but we have come out stronger and with greater resilience and awareness of our skills and knowledge,” he continues.
Well-equipped with extensive industry experience having worked at the leading global utility Enel, both in Italy and at an international level, Allegra joined Tirreno Power as General Manager in the midst of a bleak period for the company.
At the time of his entrance in 2015, Tirreno Power was weathering what has been described as a ‘perfect storm’, resulting from the thermoelectric sector being plunged into crisis following the economic downturn and subsequent recession of 2014. In addition, that same year,
Tirreno Power was forced to stop the production in its coal plant at Vado Ligure. This led to the implementation of a restructuring agreement, finalised in 2015.
In dire straits, a successful turnaround strategy and the implementation of an industrial plan was required to bring Tirreno Power out of the mire and into the future – one that has been driven by a change-oriented team geared towards operational efficiency, energy management and the recovery of investments to improve the plant’s performance. For Allegra, this successful pivot has been broken down into three key pillars.
“Our strategy has been focused on our technical assets, people, and stakeholders, since we believe that they are the key to making our company grow,” he says.
“The reliability of our plants, the talent and commitment of our people, and strong stakeholder relations based on the sustainability of our
FABRIZIO ALLEGRA, GENERAL MANAGER: “From the point of view of energy flow management, our sites are located on crucial nodes of the national grid. For this reason, they are particularly suitable for this kind of application which is devoted to the provision of services to the transmission system operator (TSO). To date, we have studied from a technicaleconomic point of view various possible applications for electrochemical batteries in some of our sites. Since these plants still need support mechanisms to be economically feasible, we expect the final regulation of the sector to fully support the projects we are developing.”
business are fundamental to endure and succeed in today’s energy sector.”
Reflecting the company’s continued and unrelenting emphasis on these three areas, Tirreno Power has been able to completely repay the remaining debt initially owed to finance the revamping of its plants
involved in the restructuring of 2015.
This is no small feat, considering that this debt amounted to €1 billion. Nevertheless, the company is successfully back in the black, having completed its challenging financial turnaround three years in advance of the schedule originally laid out in its ambitious industrial plan.
The turnaround of Tirreno Power is remarkable not just as a story of survival, but as a model for how the company leveraged its transformation to reinvent itself as a critical driver in Italy’s energy transition.
The company’s commitment to furthering the energy transition was made clear in 2016 with its decision to entirely phase out its coal power plant. This bold move set Tirreno Power apart by recognising its role in the energy transition, and is a standpoint that it continues to stand firmly by today.
“We made this decision way ahead of time, rather than waiting for 2025
“STORAGE PLANTS REPRESENT ONE OF THE NEW FRONTIERS OF OUR SECTOR AND PROPER REGULATION IS OF THE ESSENCE TO SUPPORT THIS PROSPECT”
– FABRIZIO ALLEGRA, GENERAL MANAGER, TIRRENO POWER
SIMIC SpA was established in 1975 by Giuseppe Ginola and Ferruccio Boveri, who are still running the company, to initially provide light carpentry, industrial plant installations and maintenance work.
In 1981, the small company took a new form, specialising in the field of heavy carpentry and began to focus on the manufacturing of pressure equipment and heat exchangers, while the installation activity grew alongside.
With experience in the engineering, manufacturing, assembly and maintenance of industrial plants, SIMIC has grown and diversified its portfolio. It is now active in various sectors and able to offer to its clients a comprehensive range of products and services for industrial plant design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance.
SIMIC is divided in two main departments focused on different areas of competence: the manufacturing division is mainly focused on petrochemicals, oil and gas, scientific research, nuclear and fusion energy. Site erection and maintenance division is focused on the food industries, chemical, power plant, pharmaceutical, fashion, and tobacco sectors.
Across all sectors, SIMIC offers a complete installation and maintenance service, taking care of the mechanical, electrical, instrumental and pneumatic part, being able to offer a partial plant installation as well as a turnkey plant. SIMIC also specialises in plant dismantling, relocation, and
maintenance services all over the world.
“In all our fields, we uptake turnkey plans to be erected from A to Z, including procurement, equipment, installation and commissioning,” says Mr Renato Ginola, Commercial Director of SIMIC’s site erection and maintenance division.
SIMIC also offers the possibility of doing maintenance on a global service, which means taking an entire plant and carrying out both ordinary and extraordinary maintenance.
The site erection and maintenance activities are carried out in Italy and abroad where, in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Romania, France and Turkey, SIMIC has already established a permanent base with its strong international experience and highly skilled staff to support its site erection and maintenance activities.
“In the food industry, for example, we have followed our customers around the world in their new plant installations,” Ginola noted. “If they open up a new facility abroad, and request SIMIC to undertake the works for them, we are more than happy to oblige.
“We are probably going to invest more in the future to have a higher capacity to respond to the new, upcoming markets we are trying to focus on, namely energy, research fields, conventional nuclear and fusion energy, while still maintaining our position and trying to strengthen the likes of chemical and power plants,” says Mr. Ginola.
For nearly three decades SIMIC has fed its constant growth by means of continuous
SIMIC is a diversified company with a solid experience in engineering, manufacturing of critical process equipment, and assembly and maintenance of industrial plants
investments in new technologies, and dynamic and specialised personnel. Together with a tightly structured and flexible organisation, constituted at its true core value and strongly supporting the company, it aims to continue expanding and investing in the most innovative and advanced technology sectors. Linked to scientific research, power plants, and green energy, SIMIC is currently one of the major global players engaging in renewable power generation, with solar and wind plants fully owned, developed and built. SIMIC’s goal is to increase the portfolio of renewable energy production in the coming years. Actual and forecasted situation:
• Installed capacity 60 megawatts (MW)
• Capacity under construction
120 MW
• Capacity under development
250 MW
Power plant maintenance involves inspecting, maintaining, repairing and replacing equipment, machinery and other assets that support everyday operations. No matter how big or small, every single piece of equipment within a power plant plays a critical role in meeting daily goals and supporting overall operations.
Therefore, for SIMIC, equipment maintenance is a top priority for power plants, as failure of equipment can lead to devastating consequences ranging from decreased plant output to fullblown outages.
Strategic power plant maintenance requires a forward-thinking mindset. Power plants that strive for proactive maintenance should take actions in the
present moment that will ultimately lead to better results and performance in the future. SIMIC is focused on helping to cultivate this proactive mentality and has developed modern power plant maintenance tools to help achieve these goals.
Capitalising on intelligent digital solutions such as process analytics and asset lifecycle management tools can help power plants gain a deep insight into equipment performance and process efficiency. Plants can then analyse these insights to make changes that will ultimately benefit future production.
Solar, wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, coal and natural gas are all types of power plants which have the same goal: to produce electricity.
Regardless of power type, power plants depend on a wide variety of equipment to attain this goal. Optimising the use of equipment is key to maximising output in a cost-effective manner, resulting in decreased costs, increased revenue, and boosted productivity.
Power plant maintenance requires strategic thinking and undertaking measures to ensure long-lasting asset performance. SIMIC has developed and integrated predictive and preventive maintenance measures in a power plant maintenance strategy, which are able to improve plant efficiency and minimise equipment downtime for a streamlined performance.
as foreseen by the Italian government in the National Plan for Energy and Environment,” says Allegra.
Sustainability and the optimisation of performance are cornerstones of Tirreno Power’s approach to growth. Maintaining a position ahead of the curve, the company has identified and continues to exploit the benefits of CCGT plants as key enablers of the energy transition in guaranteeing a level of reliability.
Their use as a viable and reliable source of power rose to the fore in 2003, as Italy faced a major blackout lasting for several hours. Although originating from a fault in Switzerland, this highlighted the pressing need for an adequate energy system, leading to the opening up of the market to new areas of investment within thermal power generation capacity. Today, CCGT continues to fulfil both adequate supply and security.
“CCGT plants represent the balance
point in a system highly penetrated by intermittent renewables such as wind and solar power,” Allegra explains. Indeed, CCGT typically provides very flexible dispatching services to the grid with the highest economic efficiency, compared to other available technologies.
As echoed by Tirreno Power’s primary pillar of asset performance, these CCGT plants have been an area of focus for increasing flexibility and availability levels in order to respond to the growing needs of the system for dispatching services.
“We are achieving this through an intensive CapEx plan. This has required a much greater effort than what was originally foreseen in our industrial plan (exceeding over €100 million for the period 2015-2022), which has been ‘self-financed’ by the systematic action of OpEx reduction,” he details.
This investment into the
improvement of the CCGT plants has reduced the accident level well below the benchmark for that particular technology.
“This is a crucial result when we consider that the availability of production capacity is the service that is renumerated in the capacity market. This was launched in Italy in 2022 to improve the adequacy of our electric system,” adds Allegra.
Tirreno Power’s efforts in driving a sustainable future for Italy’s energy supply marry with its work in realising a community-centric circular economy.
Choosing to act as an agent of change, Tirreno Power didn’t simply close the coal power plant at Vado Ligure, but instead launched an ambitious reindustrialisation project, with the aim of attracting companies
“THIS YEAR MORE THAN EVER, OUR PRIORITIES CONTINUE TO BE FOCUSED ON THE PILLARS THAT HAVE ENSURED OUR GROWTH”
– FABRIZIO ALLEGRA, GENERAL MANAGER, TIRRENOPOWER
THREE – Thermoelectric sites located on the Tyrrhenian coast with four combined cycle plants fuelled by natural gas
18 – Hydroelectric plants located along the entire arc of the Ligurian Apennines
5,400 – GWh fed into the grid in 2022
20 – years of activity as one of the pioneers of the Italian electricity market
8TH – company in Italy for production capacity
228 – people working together as a team to achieve shared goals
companies from different sectors and continuing to support the community of Savona, which had relied heavily on the plant for the area’s economic livelihood. As a result, the former coal site has been entirely revamped for productive purposes and now stands as a success story that sets an industrial benchmark for exiting coal production.
“Our objective was to develop a great opportunity for the local community, considering that Savona province had been declared by the government as an “area of complex industrial crisis”, suffering from the shutdown of many productive sites and facing an increasing unemployment rate,” he informs us.
Research studies have since estimated that in the long-term, this new operation has the potential to generate between €1.9-4.4 billion in economic impact from new businesses, human capital
development, and new jobs, with a multiplicative effect on the economic system between seven to eight times compared to the initial investment.
“This programme has been considered one of the most successful cases of reindustrialisation in Italy in the framework of the circular economy,” Allegra shares proudly.
Control Room Torrevaldaliga SudElsewhere, Tirreno Power continues to improve and reinforce its relationships with local communities through recent exploration into the application of Renewable Energy Communities as a new and more efficient and integrated model of producing and consuming energy.
“We have experienced considerable interest from local institutions and businesses for these applications since the early stages of development,” says Allegra. “We are now waiting for the final regulations to be published in the coming weeks. We have reached the final development step in Vado Ligure, and are now working on this idea across all our major sites.”
Overall, the successful transformation of the Vado Ligure site can be seen as a microcosm that
is emblematic of the entire Tirreno Power operation.
Looking ahead, Tirreno Power will continue to maintain and improve its assets as the backbone of the company’s future growth.
In the renewables field, this entails a continued focus on the performance of its hydroelectric power facilities as Tirreno Power’s flagship asset. Most recently, this has involved the restoration and renovation of three sites in Western Liguria, after significant damage during a storm in 2020.
Another key example of emerging from the wreckage and using adversity as a window to opportunity, this restoration has paved the way for new endeavours.
“During these works, we also built a
new power plant that uses wastewater from the power plant upstream, increasing the total energy produced in the site without any additional impacts to the environment,” shares Allegra, referring to the use of
CCGT Power Plant in Vado Ligure 800MW (Liguria)mini and micro hydros to enhance geodetic unused jumps as cuttingedge applications in the field.
“We are committed to developing new projects in this area.”
In furthering the provision of energy security for the country’s electricity system by energising Italy’s renewable future, Tirreno Power has its sights set on moving into the realm of storage projects, as a strategic improvement in terms of energy flow management. As its General Manager affirms, “storage plants represent one of the new frontiers for our sector and a promising prospect for the energy transition.”
Drawing to a close, Allegra returns
to the significance of this milestone in what has been a challenging, but ultimately rewarding journey for Tirreno Power, with a hopeful future ahead so long as the company follows its three guiding principles.
“This year more than ever, our priorities continue to be focused on the pillars that have ensured our growth,” he says.
“In terms of our assets, we are continuing to invest in the improvement of the performances of systems already in place and in new projects, with the aim of diversifying our portfolio of technologies and energy sources.
completing a process which, in previous years, has brought about an important generational turnover and a new focus on technical and managerial skills, with particularly close care for the cohesion of our team.
“And finally, our stakeholder relationships. As we celebrate our 20th birthday, we have a plan of initiatives that will allow us to reinforce the dialogue with all our stakeholders, to reflect on the path we have gone through jointly and on the future of energy that we are going to build together.”
Tel:
info@tirrenopower.com www.tirrenopower.com
– FABRIZIO ALLEGRA, GENERAL MANAGER, TIRRENO POWER
EME Outlook Issue 52 | 69
Aiming to become a manufacturer that sets the benchmark for consciously crafted textiles and garments, LTP Group is the production partner embodying the marriage between functionality and longevity. We find out more from the co-CEO Executive Management team; CEO and CFO, Jeannett Hvidkjær, CEO for the Furniture Division, Henrik Holmgaard Olsson, and CEO for the Garment Division, Hans Maasbøl
Writer: Phoebe Harper | Project Manager: Dennis Morales
Only courage leads us to greatness, but it is only achieved by those who put aside any contradictions and stay true to their values and vision. In line with this belief, our vision and future goals can be summed up by one word – sustainability.
Whether looking at long-term strategy development plans or smaller daily activities, we always see sustainability as an ultimate goal. We realise that we cannot change the world by ourselves, therefore, we do everything we can to involve our partners and colleagues in driving this goal forwards and making it a reality.
We promote integrated, sustainable production, consumption and recycling, and in these areas the focus on our people comes before all else. After all, everything starts with the employees in our company, and recognising this, we foster stable relationships based on openness and respect.
LTP is overseen by a modern leadership structure, including CEO and CFO Jeannett Hvidkjær, CEO for the Furniture Division, Henrik Holmgaard Olsson, and CEO for the Garment Division, Hans Maasbøl, who collectively form the three part Executive Management team.
Employing more than 2,700 people in 12 modern factories across six countries, LTP works with sport, outdoor and contract furniture brands whose ambitions marry with its own, as an industry innovator demonstrating an ambitious commitment to quality through world-class manufacturing practices, combined with both functionality and innovation.
Since its foundation as a Danishowned company in the 1980s and its subsequent trajectory of expansion to become a global production partner,
LTP has kept pace with an ever-changing marketplace, and continues to occupy the vanguard of garment and OEM furniture manufacturing.
“LTP excels in a constantly evolving environment. We strive to be the number one preferred manufacturer in the market,” opines Hvidkjær.
From ideation to creation, LTP boasts unparalleled expertise honed through years of experience in both garment and furniture manufacturing. The latter division comprises over 600 employees with production and innovation centres in both Lithuania and Mexico, covering a vast product range across sofas and soft seating, bed and sofa covers, upholstery chairs and textile solutions.
Over 50 percent of UAB “Vita Baltic International” employees have been with us for 10 years, with some even exceeding 25 having remained with the company since day one. In a certain sense, we are all like one big family, therefore we are convinced that achieving anything productive and sustainable is impossible without respect, open communication and mutual trust within the organisation. vitabaltic.lt
“WE ARE COMMITTED TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVING LTP’S OVERALL SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AND TO DRIVING POSITIVE CHANGE ACROSS OUR INDUSTRIES”
– JEANNETT HVIDKJÆR AND HENRIK HOLMGAARD, OLSSON, GROUP EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT, LTP GROUP
Our foam factory, located in the suburbs of Alytus, belongs to one of the world’s largest polyurethane manufacturers, VITA GROUP.
Our goal is to take sustainability into account when making daily company management decisions and developing long-term strategic expansion plans.
Moreover, we understand that we cannot change the world on our own. That is why, with all our heart, we do our best not only to set an example to inspire our clients and partners, but also to promote integrated sustainable production and consumption as well as recycling.
We are part of Vita Group and together we have achieved gold certification from EcoVadis, the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.
Now Vita Group is ranked among the top three percent of global companies assessed on sustainability performance by Ecovadis.
+370 315 55 405
info@vitabaltic.lt
Jurgiškės, Alytus district, LT-62181, Lithuania
vitabaltic.lt
“Every year more than two million made to order products are produced using over 5,000 various fabrics,” Olsson elaborates. “LTP is a global leader in furniture outsourcing and we support customers from product development to mass production, including assembly, packaging, logistics and direct-to-customer delivery.”
Within this area, LTP has access to more than 600 suppliers/specialists and over 300 material/trim suppliers. In addition, its customers can benefit
FLEXIBLE - As an agile manufacturer, LTP specialises in made to design and made-to-order products. This means it can operate with small or large-scale production orders and can handle many variants.
CUSTOMER CENTRIC – LTP does not own any of its own branded products. Being a 100 percent subcontracting partner gives dedicated focus to all brands.
FAR-SEEING – LTP maintains control over its strategic outlook, long-term business priorities and investment as a result of being privately owned.
INNOVATIVE – LTP has invested significantly in digital transformation across the board, aligning with its commitment to having seamless and transparent communication with its customers.
INDUSTRY EXPERTS – Strong R&D set up across divisions, supporting customers in development and leveraging many years of experience.
COMMUNICATORS – LTP maintains a high level of communication with its customers, developing long-term relationships built on trust.
from the consignment stock of more than 200 fabrics, ensuring a very fast turnaround and savings on transportation cost.
Meanwhile, LTP’s Garment Division consists of over 2,100 employees with production and innovation centres across Lithuania, Vietnam, Romania, Belarus and Ukraine, catering to product groups within outdoor, cycling, active sport, performance running, urban performance and organic apparel and lifestyle.
“In Lithuania we have an expert garment development team possessing more than three decades of experience, which makes LTP an expert in construction, materials, cuts and sewing technologies required for production of high-performance garments,” shares Maasbøl. “LTP is a specialist in handling textiles.”
Across both divisions, LTP occupies a strategic position in the supply chain between material suppliers and the brands themselves, and plays a critical role from the idea stage through to the delivery of the final product.
As a true agile manufacturer, LTP’s cutting edge, lean production facilities are instrumental in maintaining the astute approach of its wideranging capabilities in catering to the demands of its clients and unlocking a pathway to innovation.
Innovation is the lifeblood of LTP - a concept that is firmly woven into the company’s DNA and stands as a key differentiator. Indeed, LTP is one of the few global manufacturers with regional innovation centres in both Europe and Asia.
Maasbøl identifies the Garment Division as “a proactive innovation leader” in supporting its customers through the combination of in-house specialists and new technologies and equipment. These technologies include ultrasonic, laser cutting, quilting, sublimation, seam-sealed and glued garment manufacturing techniques. This is bolstered by a dedicated team of fabric and trim experts specialising in innovation, performance and sustainable materials.
This garment manufacturing prowess creates an avenue for LTP to venture into value-added services for the benefit of its customers, fuelling future innovations.
“LTP is more than garment production, since we offer valueadded services specifically designed to provide our customers with tools to take next steps towards new and exciting product developments,” he affirms.
A few examples of such services include a 360°Innovation Book, 3D product visualisation, trend analysis, the Sport & Outdoor Apparel Network, and the LTP Crafted App.
Elsewhere, the LTP Furniture Division has been the focus of significant investment into digital solutions, to the extent that it can now support direct IT integration from order flow and stock to warehouse/transport management and shipping via a partner portal.
The latest innovation in this field is the new offering of a Development Acceleration Centre, which includes in-house furniture wood frame building and foam cutting. Offering 3D development capabilities, this streamlines new product development by significantly reducing the lead time to market.
As evidenced by this latest development in the Furniture Division, LTP
leverages digital innovation to drive improvements on behalf of its clients. Whether clients, employees or partners, LTP demonstrates a commitment centred on communication to its people, complementing its social outlook as a responsible corporate citizen.
In this respect, LTP strikes a fine balance between cherishing its own talent despite industry-wide labour shortages, and adopting digital transformation that points toward revolutionary automation processes.
“As with most other industries, LTP has been experiencing difficulties in getting the required workforce for production, which has accelerated the need for the company to focus on automating its production processes, beginning with the Furniture Division,” Olsson elaborates.
Although automation is welcomed within manufacturing processes as a step forward in innovation, this is not at the expense of human capital.
“Our manufacturing services are a form of craftmanship that require skilled employees to service premium brands,” he continues. “Even though automation is moving fast, there is still a high need to attract and retain skilled employees. The same goes for skilled employees and managers who will drive the digitalisation and sustainability agenda.”
With regards to furthering this agenda, LTP recognises the responsibility and potential it has to be an influential voice to its partners across leading furniture and garment brands.
“The textile industry is transforming, and the brands, manufacturers and material suppliers must unite in
strategic partnerships to invest in the future, achieving agility and visibility in reducing environmental impact,” observes Hvidkjær.
As such, LTP uses its partnerships to collaborate with brands and suppliers on materials substitution, product development and innovation for design for durability, and design for disassembly. These commitments also extend to minimising production waste and optimising waste recycling.
Consequently, partners are approached as a means to further LTP’s own goals in driving change as a collective and share the best practices it has refined over years of operation to make the industry more sustainable.
“We promote knowledge sharing to actively participate in the transformation of the industry,” she affirms.
In the transformation of the industry that LTP envisions, both digital and environmental evolution can flourish symbiotically.
This concept is embodied by the LTP ‘Consciously Crafted’ initiative, echoing the company’s sustainability standpoint and enshrining its commitment to drive conscious manufacturing, with environmental and ethical accountability determining its choices in producing
durable, functional, premium products.
A tangible example of consciously crafted manufacturing processes being put into action within the Garment Division can be seen with one of LTP’s key trim suppliers - YKK.
“YKK is one of LTP’s main suppliers in the garment industry,” she continues. “The YKK Fastening Products Group is trusted worldwide for their impeccable production standards and thorough quality control processes for slide fasteners, plastic hardware, hook and loop fasteners and much more.
“They include a sustainable and recycled product range called ‘Natulon’, which are recycled zippers that LTP is also consuming for a lot of products. The demand from customers for using sustainable and recycled trims is increasing and it’s of the utmost importance for us to be able to provide the best range of trims from world known suppliers like YKK,” surmises Maasbøl.
Looking to the years ahead, LTP is continuing to spread its net wide with
HENRIK HOLMGAARD OLSSON, CEO, FURNITURE DIVISION: “This is our commitment to drive conscious manufacturing, with environmental and ethical accountability determining our choices in producing durable, functional, premium products.
“In 2021, we signed the Science Based Target Initiative as a way for LTP to measure, in order to act. Since then, LTP has worked systematically on scoping the focus areas by conducting materiality assessment, defining our four commitment areas: Care for People, Embrace Circularity, Fight for Climate and Unlock Transparency, and setting actions and targets for the years towards 2025. Each area is of equal importance and requires continuous improvement.
“This applies from the development phase where the design takes into account how the product can be reused, to the creation phase where the manufacturing process is key to prolonging product life and supporting the consumer-friendly approach of ‘who made my product’.
“We are seeing a big move towards removing greenwashing in our industry, and we need to take a stand with the younger generation and emphasise that ‘less is more’. We need to reinvent fashion, and act towards accommodating their needs – by thinking smarter, optimising all processes in the supply chain, building concepts and tools to help them better understand the impact and how to care for a product, and by communicating to them equally and transparently.”
an ever-growing footprint. Although the last five years alone have seen LTP grow the business by more than 75 percent, this pace to drive long term growth shows no sign of slowing.
The company has a new production
plant for the garment industry opened in Romania last year, while the Furniture Division is pursuing expansion in North America thanks to the recent establishment of a new factory in Mexico.
“INCLUDING A CONSCIOUS MINDSET APPLIES TO ALL PHASES IN CREATING A PIECE OF FURNITURE OR GARMENTS. ‘DESIGNED TO BE WORN OUT’ SHOULD IDEALLY BE THE MANTRA”
– HENRIK HOLMGAARD OLSSON, CEO, FURNITURE DIVISION, LTP GROUP
“As we serve premium brands, LTP will look further to other European countries in search of high technical skilled capabilities. We are met with increasing requests from our Scandinavian and North European customers demanding the products
to be made in Europe,” Hvidkjær says. This growth is set to meet the burst of consumer demand that has risen from the ashes of the COVID19 pandemic, particularly for the garment industry. However, with the current economic climate, impacted
by the ongoing energy crisis across Europe, and the conflict in Ukraine, the market for both divisions is defined by both volatility and uncertainty.
Despite these uncertain times, the priorities that define a global leader in quality furniture and textiles manufacturing for the world’s premium brands remain steadfast.
“We are committed to significantly improving LTP Group’s overall sustainability performance and to driving positive change across our industries,” OIsson closes.
NATULON is a fastening product made of recycled materials.
KNF Flodos AG delivers quality engineering, meticulous design, and outstanding innovation in diaphragm pump technology. We discover more with Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Davies
Writer: Ed Budds
Project Manager: Nicholas Kernan
Our aim is our customers’ success, now, and in the future.”
As a firmly established leader on the world market for diaphragm pump technology, KNF Group operates multiple R&D departments with the goal of continuously pushing technology further in the diverse realm of manufacturing.
KNF Group was founded in 1946, in Freiburg, Germany, and is still proudly family-owned to this day, as it continues to develop, produce, and distribute high-quality diaphragm pumps and systems for gases, vapours, and liquids.
Now able to rely on five competence centres for development, design and production, KNF Group’s facilities are located in Germany, Switzerland, France, and the US.
Occupying a vitally important strand of this highly successful operation within the vast KNF Group umbrella, is KNF Flodos AG, which acts as the broader group’s diaphragm liquid pump specialist. Since its inception in 1987, the company has consistently developed and produced innovative, high-quality products for the international market.
“We serve a diverse mix of customers in various industries, such as medical technology, digital printing, semi-conductor and fuel cells,” introduces KNF Flodos AG’s Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Davies.
In the face of an onslaught of turbulence throughout the industry, which has seen many companies face strong challenges especially in the supply chain, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Davies remains refreshed and upbeat about the current state of the manufacturing landscape across Europe.
“Despite all the doom and gloom and talk of disaster every time you open the newspaper, we remain very optimistic and so do the majority of
our customers, as we have grown considerably over the last two years,” he describes.
Over the years, KNF Flodos AG has enjoyed a record of steady growth while also broadening its experience and global reach. The company is constantly expanding its multiindustry expertise and growing an enviable range of applications.
From the reliability of its impressive
product portfolio and solutions to its watertight promises of both quality and delivery, KNF Flodos AG is entirely dedicated to helping its many clients meet their manufacturing goals.
The pump is often a critical component in the customer’s system and thus a reliable function which is very important to them.
Many applications benefit from the use of diaphragm technology as it effectively prevents media contamination and ensures excellent
“DESPITE ALL THE DOOM AND GLOOM... WE REMAIN VERY OPTIMISTIC AND SO DO THE MAJORITY OF OUR CUSTOMERS, AS WE HAVE GROWN CONSIDERABLY OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS”
– MICHAEL DAVIES, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, KNF FLODOS AG
Schneto AG offers you more than just know-how: we have the experience and equipment to produce complex high-end precision-turned parts to our customers’ demanding specifications.
We offer you a full range of services including multi-spindle automatics, production turning machines and turn-mill centres as well as a variety of secondary operations. The use of state of the art measuring and tooling systems leads to higher process reliability and productivity.
A skilled and enthusiastic team is ready to support you with all questions around your turned parts. We look forward to your enquiry.
leak-tightness for media transfer. The diaphragm pump is ideal for use with gases and liquids being able to run dry and self prime. With liquids, the diaphragm pump is self-priming and safe to run dry, whereas alternatively, when used with gaseous media, it is resistant to both moisture and condensation.
Complementing this expertise, KNF Flodos AG enjoys the advantage of having three product centres within close proximity between Germany and Switzerland. These international facilities work effectively to synergise operations and processes to mutually benefit each other.
“If one of our facilities is developing a new motor, for example, we’ll talk about it and exchange key information. New rubber parts, elastomers, plastics or anything that one of the product centres discovers can then be shared around and
this provides strength to the group through a joint effort and improved cohesion,” details Davies.
Embracing and utilising innovation for KNF Flodos AG means remaining open-minded about new and different approaches.
Drawing on the company’s collective expertise across a multitude of varied fields within the engineering industry, from mechanics, materials, and fluidics to electronics and software, KNF Flodos AG strives to
always find the smartest solutions for every application – not just for the present, but also for all its customers’ future needs.
“Over the last four years we have brought out a whole new smooth flow pump range. One of the disadvantages of the diaphragm pump technology was always the pulsation created on the inlet and outlet side. The new pumps have kept all of the strong USPs of our technology and managed to solve this issue, allowing us to move into a wide range of new applications,” Davies describes.
“GOING FORWARD WE WANT TO CONTINUE TO WIN NEW CUSTOMERS, PUSH DIAPHRAGM LIQUID TECHNOLOGY, AND BE THE ULTIMATE TECHNOLOGY LEADER”
– MICHAEL DAVIES, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, KNF FLODOS AG
New products are manufactured at KNF Flodos AG’s site according to the highest quality standards, and the close cooperation between product engineering, production, and sales also enables the company to react rapidly and on a personalised and individual basis to any specific customer requirements or local market demands.
Guided by an unwavering spirit of innovation and based on comprehensive production and application knowledge, the company’s cutting-edge production ensures the continuous optimisation of pump technology and manufacturing ability at the highest level.
Wherever its customers require the company’s services, KNF Group has established a worldwide presence and is always ready to take care of specific application requirements. These sales centres are found at 24 locations worldwide and enable the group to serve all its consumers with a flexible,
fast, and individual approach.
Digitalisation is an ongoing process which most industries have embraced and continue to develop as a way of streamlining operations, saving valuable time during a variety of processes, and transforming data collection and analysis. It is an ongoing focus for KNF Group as a whole, as it looks towards a new era of smoother processing and achieving new heights of customer satisfaction and product optimisation.
“We initially started the entire digitalisation process about two or three years before the pandemic hit. I have to say we were very lucky that we had it all in place when COVID-19 fully started to affect the industry,” recalls Davies.
Other companies within the manufacturing sector and elsewhere that had not yet started the process of
going digital had more time to adapt to the situation during this difficult period.
“We continue to test every single pump that leaves the factory, and previously those results were written on a piece of paper, so that’s something we’ve really left behind in the last few years as all the data is now digitally inputted on the computer,” he adds.
Automation is another process that KNF Flodos AG has been exploring in order to enhance quality control and efficiency. The company continues to push technology further as production quantity demands continue to rise. Starting off as a more niche producer, KNF Flodos AG now undertakes many large-scale orders where the same level of quality needs to be ensured independent of lot size.
“Investing in automation is a vital part of our growth strategy, allowing us to ensure a high level of process quality and efficiency,” Davies affirms.
“If you’re building two pumps, then people tend to take a lot of care over building them to perfection. However, if someone needs to build 50,000 pumps, mistakes become more likely. So, the question became, how can we build a large, monotonous quantity of the product and still be able to ensure the same quality? This is where we turn to automation.”
Sustainability and environmentally responsible behaviour have and will continue to play a major role at KNF Flodos AG. One way in which the company is looking to secure a greener future has been the implementation of several environmental renovation measures at the company’s facility in Sursee, Switzerland.
“About three years ago, we covered
our roofs with solar panels and 10 years ago we were one of the first companies to use geothermal heat. By drilling a hole in the earth, we now pump water down and it comes up warmer; because of this, we can now heat our building in the winter and cool it in summer with this much greener process,” explains Davies. From now on, the location will generate part of the electricity it consumes itself, use energy even more efficiently, and additionally stabilise a nearby nature reserve with water.
This initiative aims to continue generating renewable electricity, and to achieve the optimal solar yield, these solar panels were installed in an east-west orientation, covering about one-third of the location’s electricity needs.
Elsewhere during this modernisation process, two parking
lots were also each equipped with a charging station so that the subsequent electricity generated can be used for electric mobility. Four more charging stations will be added soon, and the company’s car fleet is currently changing over to electric.
After many years of dedicated work and a wealth of gained expertise, as well as embracing these enhanced sustainability initiatives, KNF Flodos AG has established itself worldwide as the leading liquid pump innovator.
“Going forward we want to continue to win new customers, push diaphragm liquid technology, and be the ultimate technology leader,” summarises Davies.
Friction braking is the most commonly used braking method in modern vehicles. It involves the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy by pressing the brake pad and applying friction to the wheels, causing them to slow down and eventually stop turning.
One of Europe’s leading suppliers of bespoke automotive brake friction products and related components is Bremsen Technik Group (Bremsen), established in late 2001 by CEO and Founder, Brian Hall.
Bremsen began as a simple hobby project with a focus on innovation, product development and meeting customer requirements, all of which have been driving forces as the group has drastically increased in size and capability over the last two decades.
Indeed, having started out as a technical and distribution partner for PAGID Racing in the UK, Bremsen today comprises seven industry leading companies and a diverse portfolio of prestigious automotive friction brands.
The group recently moved into its newly refurbished global headquarters, located in Brompton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire (UK), in 2020.
Bremsen Technik House will allow for an increase in both warehouse and office capacity as the business continues to grow. The new premises is complemented by manufacturing and distribution centres across Europe and Asia, including a new site opening in Lille, France.
Bremsen’s manufacturing centres follow rigorous policies and procedures to ensure products always meet the highest standards, whilst a global distribution network allows new components to be launched to a worldwide audience.
From its exciting new administrative and distribution hub, Bremsen specialises in high-inertia capability disc brake pads and drum brake linings.
Millions of people worldwide in commercial vehicles and passenger cars rely on Bremsen’s brake pads and linings whilst travelling to and from their place of work, a holiday destination, or their child’s school.
To guarantee customer safety and reassurance in the products they are using on a daily basis, the group makes sure the quality of its best-in-class offerings goes above and beyond.
As such, all products are certified according to the latest industry standards, and Bremsen’s quality management system encompasses all divisions and processes.
The recent opening of a brand new global headquarters provides a modern, spacious base of operations for Bremsen Technik Group, whose brake friction products are relied upon across the automotive sectorWriter: Jack Salter | Project Manager: Kierron Rose
The group prides itself on the R&D that goes into each and every product. For Bremsen, R&D is one of the most important factors that set it apart from the competition as a world-class brake manufacturer.
Products are continuously tested by the group, which works closely with industry partners to make sure all brake compounds adhere to the required regulations, and ensures that they perform to the standards that customers and end users expect.
The R&D team at Bremsen not only focuses on testing products, but is responsible for creating and testing new production methods, striving to achieve higher quality standards with better real world results as technology advances.
Now more than ever, there is also a huge emphasis on the importance of reducing environmental impact, a cause Bremsen’s R&D team is equally committed to.
Vehicles today are equipped with numerous safety measures which protect people inside and outside.
Car designs include ergonomic aspects for seating, active and passive safety devices such as early warning systems, and actively pursue environmental factors in terms of emissions reduction.
All these features aim to provide a safe, sustainable and efficient mode of transport for millions of people, and Bremsen’s brake friction products are a fundamental part of this complex system.
Bremsen continuously strives to improve its health and
The removal of copper and harmful heavy metals from products that are designed to wear, for example, is a key target for many manufacturers in the friction braking sector.
A pioneer in this area, Bremsen was one of the first manufacturers to introduce a copper-free friction material to the commercial vehicle market.
Elsewhere, Bremsen also operates a technical and commercial service for the motorsport and high performance automotive industry.
Specialty friction is where the business started and continues to be the group’s bread and butter, just as important today as it was more than 20 years ago.
Bremsen Technik Motorsport (BTM), the group’s motorsport arm, has industry leading expertise in high performance braking products.
With over 60 years of combined experience, BTM’s technical advisors not only supply braking systems on behalf of the world’s top brake component manufacturers, but also provide in-depth technical knowledge, bespoke designs and system development for leading brands around the world.
BTM works closely with a range of individuals, from single vehicle tuners to race car manufacturers, factory support race teams, track day operators and specialist parts distributors.
Historically, BTM has supported teams such as Aston Martin Racing and McLaren Racing, providing support and product advice throughout their race seasons.
Key industry events such as the British GT, British F3 Championship (as an exclusive brake pad suppliers), and the GT Cup have also been supported by BTM.
As well as this, the company has long-standing
relationships with world-leading motorsport brands such as Brembo, an acknowledged pioneer and innovator in the field of automotive disc brake technology.
BTM is the exclusive UK distributor of Brembo’s Sport range, tested to the highest levels on track and capable of operating in the most demanding conditions, and is continuously looking at new programmes and product ranges to bring to the performance race markets.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE – Everything Bremsen does as a group revolves around customer satisfaction. From the provision of high quality parts to the assembly and testing of its products, Bremsen goes the extra mile to make sure customers achieve their goals.
BEST INTEREST FIRST – Bremsen’s decisions are based on what will guarantee the best interest for all and not purely self-interests.
MUTUAL RESPECT – Everyone working in the group is encouraged to follow this golden rule with colleagues and customers whatever the circumstances, and treat others as they would wish to be treated.
MAINTAIN INTEGRITY – As one team, Bremsen prides itself on integrity and speaks up when it is challenged. The group learns from its mistakes and remains open and transparent.
NURTURE SUCCESS – Success is nurtured across the group by engaging with staff, recognising their contributions, and developing their potential. This allows Bremsen to attract and retain the best possible people and meet the growing needs of the business.
Business to business international freight solutions since 1990
The company works strictly with Brembo to develop specific braking applications for race and street cars, and provides technical and commercial support to Brembo’s end users.
Hearkening back to Bremsen’s humble beginnings more than 20 years ago, BTM also remains an exclusive distributor for PAGID Racing, and represents ZF Race Engineering as a distributor and service partner.
Like all companies, Bremsen aims to attract, recruit and retain the best people for the job.
Family-owned with a proud history of developing great people, the group employs a fantastic, hardworking team of individuals that make up its proactive, industry-leading
Throughout each of the companies within Bremsen, the talent and motivation of individual employees are what determine the group’s true competitive advantage, and form the basis to provide the best possible products and services at all times.
There is a very high focus on continuing to run the group in such a way that the workforce is always happy, thereby driving Bremsen and its braking products in the right direction.
After 30 years of providing freight solutions to businesses, K&L Freight has become one of the UK’s most experienced shipping and logistics companies. With each member of the K&L team having vast knowledge of the industry, we can ensure the seamless delivery of your goods by air, land and sea and provide our clients with appropriate advice and solutions for their cargos.
Building on the global success of our regional titles – EME Outlook, Africa Outlook, APAC Outlook, and North America Outlook – Outlook Publishing is proud to be launching a dedicated platform for the Mining & Resources sector.
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After navigating the choppy waters of the COVID-19 pandemic, sea passenger traffic is now rebounding in Finland.
In 2022, 8.1 million passengers travelled through the Port of Helsinki, one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe and Finland’s main port for foreign trade, a number that is expected to grow once again in the coming year.
Though still shy of pre-pandemic levels, due in part also to the war in Ukraine and Finland’s close proximity to Russia, the port is on a promising upward trajectory having more than doubled its passenger volumes from 2021.
“Naturally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough. Our passenger traffic suffered a lot and practically stopped in March 2020 due to travel
restrictions and people staying at home during lockdown,” notes Ville Haapasaari, CEO of the Port of Helsinki.
“This resulted in a significant drop in our turnover, and we had to do much cost cutting, but passenger traffic is now clearly bouncing back and the expectations for this year are high. Our market share of Finnish maritime passenger traffic is almost 80 percent.”
Container traffic, meanwhile, has remained strong in the cargo sector, with a record total of 15.2 million tonnes of goods transported via the Port of Helsinki in 2022.
An important hub for cargo logistics and Finland’s security of supply, the Port of Helsinki has a significant positive impact on the country’s economy and employment.
“We saw only a quick drop in cargo volumes in 2020, but thereafter we have been on an upwards growth path. Naturally, global problems in container traffic had a negative effect on us, but that was compensated by strong growth in roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic,” informs Haapasaari, who has always been interested in logistics and shipping having worked practically his whole career in the field.
RESPONSIBILITY – The Port of Helsinki works responsibly, respects the environment, and ensures Finland’s security of supply. It takes responsibility for its port community in order to promote the success of its customers. Safety forms the basis of the port’s operations, taking into account the occupational safety culture, passenger and cargo security, traffic safety of harbour areas as well as reputation management.
COOPERATION – Working together with customers and the companies operating at the port in order to achieve its goals, the Port of Helsinki develops its working community in order to make it supportive and interactive, while making sure to respect each other’s work.
EFFECTIVENESS – The Port of Helsinki is committed to the clear qualitative and financial objectives set for its operations. It focuses on the essentials and the effectiveness of its operations, measures the success of its work, and develops and reforms its operations in order to achieve better results.
As CEO, Haapasaari saw an opportunity to make use of his work experience and develop the port’s operations, improving Finland’s connectivity to the rest of the world in terms of both passenger and cargo traffic.
Serving as a gateway for both cargo flows and people, the Port of Helsinki manages a total of eight harbours, six of which specialise in ferries and cruises, complemented by two cargo harbours for general traffic.
The port’s busiest line is between Helsinki and Tallinn, traversed by more than nine million passengers per year, followed by the Helsinki-Stockholm line.
“Our passenger volume in 2019 was over 12 million, of which 600,000 was from international cruise traffic. Naturally, due to our position in the capital, international cruise traffic to and from the Port of Helsinki far outnumbers any other city in Finland,” Haapasaari shares.
Fully owned by the City of Helsinki, the port’s revenue (approximately €100 million) is fairly evenly split between passenger and cargo traffic, the latter of which mostly comprises unitised cargo (lorries, trailers, containers).
“Our mission is to bring people and goods together to accelerate sustainable growth. For the coming years, our focus is on bouncing back and growing in a sustainable manner, ensuring safety and security in all of our operations,” outlines Haapasaari.
The Port of Helsinki aims to achieve carbon
KWH Logistics continues investing in cargo handling in Finnish ports
Moving and handling of goods as well as warehousing are the core of KWH Logistics’ operations. In addition to operating in ports, terminals, and factory areas, KWH Logistics offers forwarding services worldwide.
Thanks to rapid growth in recent years, KWH Logistics is the leading port operator in Finland with a handled annual volume of 16 million tonnes of goods. Through their subsidiaries, they are present in all major ports in Finland.
The port of Vuosaari, where KWH Logistics’ subsidiary Rauanheimo operates, is one of the company’s most important and largest ports.
“The aim is to grow in Vuosaari and develop operations constantly,” says KWH Logistics CEO Joakim Laxåback. Rauanheimo improves the competitiveness of its customers through clever, complete logistic solutions. Founded in 1884, Rauanheimo has gained thorough knowledge of port and maritime activities over the years. The company offers services in stevedoring, forwarding, ship agency, customs declaration, container traffic, general and bulk cargo handling. Rauanheimo also offers added-value services such as stuffing of containers, transport services, handling of goods at departure and arrival, documentation of the entire chain and customs clearance.
“Rauanheimo creates competitive logistics solutions that save customers time and costs. By outsourcing their logistics operations to us, customers can sleep well at night,” comments Tero Kosonen, CEO at Rauanheimo. “We are willing and able to invest into the newest sustainable technology and through that offer competitive advantages to our customers.”
Close collaboration with customers allows Rauanheimo’s dedicated team of professionals to develop tailored solutions that add genuine value to our customers’ logistics operations.
www.kwhlogistics.com
·Port Logistics
·Industrial Services
·International transport
KWH Logistics – a comprehensive, innovative and efficient port operator in Finland. Our nationwide location and strong cooperation between our subsidiaries enable us to offer versatile overall logistics services.
Adolf Lahti | Backman-Trummer | Blomberg Stevedoring
Blomberg Rent | Moonway | Rauanheimo | Rodén Shipping | Stevena
www.kwhlogistics.com
neutrality in its operations by 2025, and has invested significantly in onshore power solutions (OPS) over the past few years, given vessels are the port’s main source of emissions.
“Our latest OPS installation was completed in December 2022, and all liner traffic that spends more than a couple of hours at berth in the downtown harbours is now able to connect to OPS,” Haapasaari reveals.
“The next step in OPS development in Helsinki will focus on the cruise and container segments.”
Staying on top of developments in the field is of utmost importance to the Port of Helsinki, as well as open and frequent communication with suppliers and end users.
Alternative fuels are another hot topic of discussion in the industry,
and for the port it all boils down to future-proofing.
“A cultural change in the organisation is at the heart of tackling these new challenges. The process of including new metrics at all levels is complex, but with a systematic approach we have taken tremendous steps forwards,” says Haapasaari.
The Port of Helsinki has equally invested heavily into improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings under its control.
New buildings are also being designed with stringent emissions targets in mind, such as the multi-purpose passenger terminal currently being planned for the West Harbour as part of the port’s development plan.
“OUR MISSION IS TO BRING PEOPLE AND GOODS TOGETHER TO ACCELERATE SUSTAINABLE GROWTH”
– VILLE HAAPASAARI, CEO, PORT OF HELSINKI
With the ambitious goal of being carbon negative during its life cycle, the Port of Helsinki believes the terminal will set the standard for future investments.
“Our port development plan concerns the development of port business in connection to port locations and operations, especially in Helsinki city centre harbours,”
Haapasaari tells us.
“The principal idea is to manage ferry passenger traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn from the West Harbour, and Helsinki and Stockholm from Katajanokka Harbour. In addition, the current South Harbour will have space for high-speed ferries and international cruise vessel operations, and Vuosaari Harbour will have future development plans for cargo operations.”
The West Harbour is the largest project within the port development plan, comprising the new passenger terminal building as well as extended quayside and harbour marshalling areas, and a tunnel connecting the harbour with the Länsiväylä motorway.
“This is a key project which will create an operationally important structure for smooth, interferencefree and predictable traffic, ensuring that the port’s sea and land traffic can be managed as a cohesive whole,” explains Haapasaari.
Katajanokka Harbour will likewise house a new passenger terminal building and harbour marshalling areas, whilst all harbour sites and facilities will be equipped with the latest technologies including digital solutions, OPS and auto-mooring devices.
The development plan is set for completion by the end of the decade, starting with the West Harbour extension and harbour tunnel project before moving onto Katajanokka
“OUR PORT DEVELOPMENT PLAN CONCERNS THE DEVELOPMENT OF PORT BUSINESS IN CONNECTION TO PORT LOCATIONS AND OPERATIONS, ESPECIALLY IN HELSINKI CITY CENTRE HARBOURS”
Harbour and finally the South Harbour.
“Planning for the West Harbour and the harbour tunnel has started with layout planning, an environmental impact assessment, and town planning. Construction of the tunnel and new passenger terminal is expected to start in 2025 and 2026, respectively,” Haapasaari details.
2023 is set to be an important year of preparation for the Port of Helsinki’s development plan investments, as it readies permits prior to commencing the construction phase in 2025.
In what has been an exceptional couple of years in the port’s operational environment, first with the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine, preparation has been a valuable lesson.
“We have formed and executed models of continuity planning
together with our stakeholders, and we shall keep up with that to ensure our own resilience,” concludes Haapasaari.
The port is also moving forwards with its carbon neutrality programme, increasing its supply of OPS and smoothening the flow of traffic with smart port gate solutions.
Together with shipping companies, another of the Port of Helsinki’s focus areas going forwards will be to find ways to speed up passenger traffic recovery, and work on new traffic in the cargo sector.
PORT OF HELSINKI
Tel: +358 9 310 1621
port.helsinki@portofhelsinki.fi
www.portofhelsinki.fi
– VILLE HAAPASAARI, CEO, PORT OF HELSINKI
We talk distribution, supply chains and strategic innovations with Ioana Boghenco, General Manager of Interbrands Orbico - Romania’s leading logistics company and distributor of sought-after brands
Writer: Rachel Carr | Project Manager: Kyle LivingstoneFollowing a 2021 merger, Interbrands Orbico is now part of the Croatian Orbico Group, Europe’s leading distributor.
The union of four local companies - Orbico, Orbico Beauty, Interbrands and Professional Brands - Interbrands Orbico went on to exceed €1 billion in turnover in 2022.
As a result, the newly formed company has become the largest fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) and beauty care product distributor and logistics service provider in Romania.
The company offers global brands across diverse categories such as household, food and beverage, personal care, tobacco, toys, beauty and style, and has partnered with the likes of Phillip Morris International, Procter & Gamble, Kelloggs, Bolton (Rio Mare), Kraft Heinz, Lindt, Ekaterra (Lipton), Wella, Coty, Converse, Revlon, Philips, and Duracell.
“Our portfolio contains approximately 250 brands and 10,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), which are distributed to over 30,000 stores in Romania across all FMCG and beauty, modern and traditional channels both through our sales force and our
new eB2B (e-commerce businessto-business) platform, covering 80 percent of the consumption market,” begins Ioana Boghenco, General Manager of Interbrands Orbico.
Boghenco joined Interbrands Orbico in 2019 and was appointed as the General Manager when the companies merged, having begun her career in the FMCG industry 13 years ago at Procter & Gamble, before changing direction from producer to distributor.
Following the merger, Romania became the largest out of the 20 European markets where Orbico Group operates. The new operation benefitted from the move by using synergies to their full potential to develop and improve the organisation and services, modernise processes and systems, streamline logistics capabilities, and maximise distribution channels.
“Our vision is to create value for our people, partners, customers and
consumers by providing future-proof holistic solutions in the FMCG and beauty industries.”
This is achieved with a tailor-made solutions platform which includes omnichannel sales and marketing, logistics and other 3PL operations such as HR, training, information technology (IT), legal, and financial services.
A new eB2B platform was launched at the beginning of 2022, developed by Orbico Group IT’s digital and
e-commerce team and localised in all key markets.
“We aim to serve all our traditional trade customers through the eB2B platform, complementing our sales force, and by the end of 2023 our target is to enrol all our customers who are not part of retail chains on the platform,” reveals Boghenco.
As customers develop the habit of ordering online, parallel to offline acquisitions, it will enable store owners to generate a better understanding of consumer insights.
“Not only will the role of our sales
“WE ENCOURAGE ALL OUR COLLEAGUES TO SHARE THEIR BEST IDEAS AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANISATION – A LARGE COMPANY LIKE OURS CANNOT BE A ONE-PERSON SHOW”
– IOANA BOGHENCO, GENERAL MANAGER, INTERBRANDS ORBICO
representatives be elevated to a level of ‘category management consultant’, but retailers can also evolve the incremental value through better customer-based design shelves and promotional displays, thus leading to a superior in-store
presence,” she explains.
The product portfolio available on the platform is three times larger than the offline version, and so far, over 60 percent of the stores covered have enrolled on the platform.
“35 percent of onboarded customers go through to eB2B with the average order value of eB2B invoices 35 percent higher than their offline counterparts.”
For example, store owners are proactively buying into new categories online which they have not previously purchased offline. Additionally, they are buying 1.5 times more frequently than before and at their own convenience, as well as benefitting from more information and educational materials on the platform.
“We are communicating with our customers via SMS, newsletters which present hot new deals, and new
the process of constant advancement we deliver products and solutions which raise work comfort and quality of living.
tailor-made promotions relevant for their needs. We are extremely pleased with the results, which have exceeded our expectations,” Boghenco says optimistically.
The local digital and e-commerce team continues to develop new features for customers to benefit from
NUMBERS
2,200 employees
1,200 vehicles
THREE main distribution centres
14 cross docks
90 suppliers
250 brands
10,000 SKUs
30,000 stores covered
60,000 square metres of warehouse space
in the future, eventually creating extra value.
Interbrands Orbico considers people as its most important asset, beyond infrastructure, systems, or material assets. The post-merger motto is ‘Stronger Together’ because the organisation believes in the power of “one team”.
“We encourage all our colleagues to share their best ideas and contribute to the continuous development of the organisation – a large company like ours cannot be a one-person show,” emphasises Boghenco.
Trust is a key aspect in working as a united team, alongside communication and transparency.
Together with her board colleagues, Boghenco relies on extended leadership to guide and engage the large organisation to reach its highest potential, become motivated, and to be open for change, as change is the only constant in any organisation and business that aspire for accelerated progress.
“Regardless of our position in the company, trust and open communication about achievements and issues in equal parts is essential
to find faster and more efficient solutions. The ‘Fit to Win’ strategy is about placing the right people in the right roles, leveraging their strengths and enabling them to grow and develop further. These are the people who will take our company to a brighter future. We want the entire organisation to be happy and to create extra value,” she tells us.
The strategy has been a success, leading to strong results combined with workplace satisfaction and talent retention.
Supply chains have navigated their fair share of challenges in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic is an obvious obstacle which the world has had to overcome, but significant inflation, labour shortages, equipment availability, and the ripple effect of global bottlenecks have all contributed to creating problems.
“Although COVID-19 disrupted logistics networks with longer road traffic routes and transit times, the most complex supply chain disruptor is the talent challenge,” states Boghenco.
“The skills that the world needs are changing, along with demographics and employee expectations. The
combined effect of these monumental shifts is here to stay. Energy security is another key challenge to solve. Our economies rely heavily on oil and gas,” she adds.
Together, oil and gas accounts for almost 50 percent of the total energy supply in 2022; a switch to green electricity and low carbon transport fuels will therefore increase industrial and building efficiencies.
However, these challenges lead to the emergence of new and innovative trends in supply chains within the field of sustainability and automation solutions.
“Globally, all supply chain leaders are changing their perspective and managing their business based on diversifying supply chains, robotisation, automation, digitalisation, and eco-orientated solutions.”
Interbrands Orbico is committed to implementing the core environmental standards from warehouse construction to transportation.
“Nowadays, supply chain and sustainability are inseparable from each other, and our values are driven by them. We are mainly oriented in eco-efficiency, higher control on energy saving, and photovoltaic solutions,” Boghenco adds.
Interbrands Orbico has a three-year plan to modernise its systems which will bring a new era of development. As the company is constantly making progress in each business field, modernising is not just an option, but a necessity. With new innovations and systems, the goal is to become “the distributor of the 21st century”.
Last year’s milestone - the €1 billion turnover – is proof that Interbrands Orbico is quickly moving towards that title.
“This year, we plan to raise the bar and deliver another 15 percent growth by developing both the business and logistics sides of the company, through process digitisation and automation, the introduction of SAP, and upgrades to other IT systems. We also plan to turn our eB2B platform into a business-as-usual tool, improve our organisational well-being, capabilities and talent development, and upgrade our go-to-market structures,” Boghenco elaborates.
The arrival of new technologies
“We achieved this despite all the challenges because we have an amazing team that works well together. We believe that customers and suppliers are among the most important components of business development,” notes Boghenco.
Interbrands Orbico has strong ambitions for further growth behind clear development strategies and plans, in partnership with their suppliers and leveraging their infrastructure and capable organisation, with the aim to become the most innovative supplier and service provider on the market.
has the potential to optimise supply chains in a strategic way, and by possessing the ‘Fit to Win’ attitude with the teams’ capabilities, Interbrands Orbico is on course for an exceptional 2023.
Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are reshaping the fish farming industry. Ruedi Ryf, CEO, tells us about Swiss Blue Salmon’s plans for the world’s smartest land-based RAS fish farm
Writer: Jack Salter | Project Manager: Liam Pye
Pollution and unsustainable fishing practices mean that there will soon be more plastic in the sea than fish.
Rapid acidification is also killing corals and sea life in general, leading to a chain reaction of damage that is threatening food and economic security, trends that are likely to be further exacerbated by climate change.
Aquaculture, the practice of fish and seafood farming, has helped to alleviate such pressures and is currently one of the fastest-growing food production systems in the world.
At the forefront of sustainable aquaculture is Swiss Blue Salmon (SBS), who believes the practice will play a critical role in protecting wild fish populations as the global population, which is projected to hit 9.7 billion by 2050,
and demand for seafood continues to rise.
“Switzerland has high growth in the aquaculture sector, with production doubling over the last 10 years,” states Ruedi Ryf, a passionate fly fisherman and the CEO of SBS.
Founded as recently as 2020, SBS wants to become a leading seafood company known for its high levels of animal welfare and minimal environmental footprint, and advocates land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) as the best way to raise healthy, sustainable, and premium quality fish.
“Today, salmon is mostly farmed in sea cages in the ocean, resulting in several environmental problems. In Switzerland, the farming of fish in sea cages is illegal because we have very strict water discharge guidelines,” Ryf explains.
“I’m not against this traditional way of farming fish, but further growth of the salmon market needs to happen in land-based RAS.”
Securing an adequate food supply is one of the greatest global challenges currently facing humanity, and landbased aquaculture holds significant promise for the planet and its people.
The world’s most advanced, sustainable aquaculture method, RAS is said to be disrupting and reshaping the world’s fish farming industry.
The system recycles water through cutting-edge filtration technology and oxygenation systems, reducing water consumption to a minimum, and uses filtered-out
residues as valued by-products within a circular waste management approach.
“RAS technology enables us to clean the water before it’s discharged into the watershed, and produce healthy fish with a truly small eco-footprint to help protect the oceans,” elaborates Ryf.
“Due to the high treatment of water, we extract more than 95 percent of common wastewater constituents and make them available for other uses such as biogas production and agricultural phosphorus fertiliser.”
RAS has already been implemented in Switzerland by Basis 57 Nachhaltige Wassernutzung AG, who produces pikeperch in water drained from the 57 kilometre (km) Gotthard Base Tunnel that runs through the Swiss Alps, and Swiss Lachs, who established the very first RAS
“WE HAVE EVALUATED MANY CONSTRUCTION SITES AND CHOSEN THE ONE WHERE WE CAN PRODUCE WITH THE LOWEST ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT”
– RUEDI RYF, CEO, SWISS BLUE SALMON
salmon project in the country.
As premium quality and healthy fish depend on perfect water conditions, raising fish in a land-based RAS farm provides the optimal operational water quality “window” where their physiological needs are met, and where the product produced is of the optimum quality.
After conducting feasibility studies for several sites across Switzerland, SBS has been able to secure a 27,000 square metre (sqm) site in the alpine canton of Glarus to build a land-based RAS salmon farm. Vertically integrated from hatchery to grow-out, the fish will be reared in the purest Swiss alpine water, free from antibiotics, pesticides, hormones and microplastics.
SBS is now in the design and permitting phase of the state of the art project, which has the capacity to grow 3,400 tonnes per annum (t/a) of Atlantic salmon (salmo salar) with room to expand to an impressive 12,000 t/a.
“We have evaluated many construction sites and chosen the one where we can produce with the lowest environmental impact,” Ryf outlines.
The RAS farm site is conveniently located close to road and rail links nearby Switzerland’s largest city, Zurich, and neighbours Lake Walen, which has enormous potential for a sustainable and efficient energy setup.
“SBS gets free cooling from the mountain lake, access to clean water, exposure to solar power, and good logistical
access. Goods can be transported by train and truck, and Switzerland has a very high proportion of relatively cheap green energy from hydropower,” adds Ryf.
When looking into how to best build the land-based RAS fish farm, healthy fish and healthy employees were an important starting point for the company.
Both are key to the economic, environmental
and social sustainability of an aquaculture business such as SBS, whose minimal handling and far lower stocking densities compared to other projects ensure the well-being of the fish and reduce operational risks.
It also enables better feed conversion and leads to the sustainable use of resources for fish feed, which is one of several key pillars of a sustainable RAS project.
“RAS projects only have the chance to be sustainable if they fulfil five aspects: very low emissions through wastewater treatment, energy efficient design, operating with green electricity, sustainable construction, and sustainable feed resources,” Ryf notes.
“Environmental sustainability is at the core of our DNA. Our USP is that our salmon has the lowest ecological
footprint possible, and it’s the consumer’s choice if they want to do good for the environment.”
Conscious consumers are typically prepared to pay a big premium for locally and sustainably produced fish, and SBS plans to fill what is a sizable gap in the market for socially responsible Swiss salmon.
Indeed, local Swiss aquaculture only accounts for around two to three percent of fish consumption in Switzerland, the rest being imported products with a high environmental footprint, shorter shelf life, and consequently lower quality.
“There is a high demand for Swiss fish, and the main difference is that our product is local, whereas our competitors are importing their fish from Alaska, the Netherlands or Norway, resulting in increased CO2 emissions,” Ryf tells us.
“Our products have a lower environmental footprint than the competition because we invest in renewable energy, smart and efficient infrastructure, and we have a strong focus on innovation to improve the environmental performance of RAS.”
• MINIMUM WATER REQUIREMENT AS OVER 99 PERCENT IS RECYCLED
• FREE FROM ANTIBIOTICS AND PHARMACEUTICALS
• FRESH FROM LOCAL PRODUCTION
• FREE FROM MICROPLASTIC
• PROTECTING THE WILD FISH IN NATURE,
• SMART CONTROL OF PRODUCTION
• REDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
• GUARANTEED PARASITE-FREE SALMON
SBS started out with four products – head-on gutted salmon, fresh salmon fillets, and two smoked products – all processed by the company, with just smoking outsourced.
“We plan to sell over 90 percent of our products through retail and fish distributors, with the rest being directly sold via our farm shop, online store, and a few collaborations with Michelin and Gault Millau chefs to obtain high visibility in food-related articles and media,” informs Ryf.
Together with technological partners, including the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and ReelData AI, SBS’ land-based RAS fish farm aims to be the world’s
smartest, using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
SBS strongly believes that smart RAS farming will lay the foundations for a sustainable and efficient way to produce healthy fish.
“We’re looking to bring in learnings from other industries while incorporating revolutionary AI and ML technologies already in the market, such as an autonomous feeding system and biomass monitoring,” Ryf says.
Today, the aquaculture industry is undergoing a significant operational shift as fish farms are transformed into sophisticated sensor hubs that generate valuable data and connect through the web.
“RAS TECHNOLOGY ENABLES US TO PRODUCE HEALTHY FISH WITH A TRULY SMALL ECO-FOOTPRINT TO HELP PROTECT THE OCEANS”
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RYF, CEO, SWISS BLUE SALMON
Digitally driven condition-based maintenance results in improved reliability by continuously assessing the condition of fish farm installation.
The objective is to identify potential issues before they become major problems, and take proactive measures to prevent failures and unplanned downtime.
“Digital asset management can help to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. For example, by identifying equipment that needs maintenance or replacing, fish farmers can avoid costly breakdowns and reduce downtime,” details Ryf.
“The data collected on our farm will be available to strategic partners within both the industry and academia. Becoming an integral part of the “wheel of innovation” is our vision.”
RAS grow-out facilities are challenging projects that require the cooperation of both strong local and international partners, to ensure all angles are covered from start to finish.
SBS has therefore spent a lot of time assessing and selecting partners that it believes are necessary for success, such as the Swiss engineering company Holinger, whose team of 500 highly skilled engineers bring essential expertise in water quality, wastewater treatment, heating and cooling systems, and Switzerland’s leading
construction company, Erne, who comes with expertise in building.
“Everybody at Holinger and Erne is fully dedicated and wants to help us design and build the smartest farm in the world,” Ryf affirms.
External partners such as Holinger and Erne are supported by SBS’ strong in-house team as well as a couple of highly skilled subject matter experts.
“Ultimately, this is a team effort and that cannot be underestimated due to the complex nature of our projects.”
Once the farm is operational, SBS will be up to around 50 employees, with the company currently looking to recruit a Chief Operations Officer (COO) to oversee all operations and ensure the team works towards achieving their goals.
“We want to onboard our COO early and involve him in the design and construction process of the farm, to gain valuable inputs from an operational perspective. Basically, this person will help us design the farm and also run it later on,” shares Ryf.
Concurrently, SBS is focused on obtaining the building permit along with other relevant environmental and operational permits.
It follows plenty of stakeholder engagement over the last two years, as the company met with people about the project and outlined what it would like to achieve.
“It’s key to engage early and talk to the community. There has been strong support from the local community to date, and we’re looking forward to working with them on the details linked to this process,” Ryf concludes.
On course to commence construction in Q2 2024, yielding SBS’ first harvest in 2027, SBS’ land-based RAS is the future of sustainable Swiss salmon.
Fabrizio
“Unfortunately, at least in Italy, the power generation sector is not a good benchmark in terms of diversity. This is the effect of what happens in our country where less than 15 percent of graduated women have a degree in STEM subjects. Nevertheless, at Tirreno Power, currently more than one out of five of our managers are women. At the same time, to tackle this issue, thanks to the recent turnover, we have increased the number of women by about five times compared to personnel leaving the company.
“Our collective agreement provides for a series of rather advanced protections for female workers. Nonetheless, we are going to go
beyond these indications through some specific project dedicated to give greater value and visibility to our female employees. We have also recently launched a new organisational unit dedicated to corporate welfare with the aim of identifying remarkable initiatives to improve the well-being of the people who, every day with their work, build the future of Tirreno Power.”
Ioana Boghenco General Manager, Interbrands Orbico
“Our organisational strategy is also based on diversity. At Interbrands Orbico we offer equal chances for growth and development to all our colleagues who are motivated and wish to reach their maximum potential. Promotions from
within take priority ahead of external hiring, and our organisation is young and diversified. The average age is 35 years with a 46 percent women and 54 percent men split. The same equilibrium is found at management level, with 42 percent of women in leading roles. We offer continuous support, respect all our employees’ family priorities, and try to find the right solutions to enable them to grow in their careers while having sufficient time for their families. If our people are happy, the business results will come naturally.”
“At Swiss Blue Salmon, we embrace and celebrate our differences – differences in experiences, backgrounds, and ways of thinking. We strongly believe that diversity fosters innovation and creativity, and leads to better business. Currently, we are looking for a woman with a background in the Swiss food industry to join our board of directors.”
“I think it’s a real pity that there are far less women involved in the engineering business than there should be. We have a lot of women working in production or in HR at present, but in the engineering department and in sales, it seems harder somehow to be accepted as a woman, so that’s something that I think should be pushed more in the future and really needs to change quickly.”
To round off each issue, we ask our contributing business leaders for their views on the same question
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