Founded in 1999 by a group of passionate entrepreneurs, Harbour Enterprise is a leading maritime safety equipment service provider, offering inspection, sales and repair of firefighting and life-saving equipment. With over 23 years of experience, the company has expanded its services to include the examination and maintenance of lifeboats, rescue boats, davits, cargo cranes and measuring equipment. Richard Hagan met with Project Safety Manager Jelena Meškovska to find out how this dynamic Latvian company stays ahead in the fast-moving world of maritime safety.
Harbour Enterprise was initially established as Ostu Pakalpojumi SLA, with a mission to render certification and repair services for firefighting and life-saving equipment on board ships. Only two years later, in 2001, Ostu Pakalpojumi SLA merged with Branga Serviss SIA.
Merger and diversification
Thanks to this merger, Ostu Pakalpojumi – today Harbour Enterprise - saw a substantial diversification of its services. It could now supply ships’ stores, spare parts and new lifesaving equipment. ISO 9001:2000 certification followed in 2002, further strengthening Harbour Enterprises’ offering.
In 2008, the Harbour Enterprise name change was complete, and its first branch office was founded in Ventspils. Then in 2009, Harbour Enterprise was granted ISO 9001:2008 certification and the following
year, the company set up licensed, bonded warehouses in Klaipeda and Liepaja. Various branch subsidiaries were later added in a number of strategic locations.
Throughout these development milestones, Harbour Enterprise enjoyed strong growth thanks to consistently excellent customer service. “Our management team is focused on providing the highest quality services,” said Jelena Meškovska, Project Safety Manager. “This is in addition to our constant implementation of the latest IT systems to ensure that our workflows
are optimised and efficient. These efforts ensure that we are able to reliably deliver impeccable quality products and services within the shortest possible timeframes.”
Protecting life at sea
Harbour Enterprise, with its highly skilled team of 40 staff members and hand-picked products, is dedicated to ensuring the safety of all of its clients’ seafarers. The company takes a no-nonsense approach to safety at sea, and this starts with Harbour Enterprises’ non-negotiable work standards, according to Ms Meškovska: “Our work standards are critical to our success and the safety of our customers; therefore, we consider them to be unbreakable.
“We are always available, we ensure that everything is possible: we deliver a wide range of services and products, and we’re focused on good communication with our customers. Added to that, we guarantee the reliability and quality of our products, and we provide world-class after-sales service to back that up.”
Harbour Enterprise is especially proud of its almost zero staff turnover levels. Its customers, therefore, benefit from the over 23 years’ worth of experience that both the service engineers and company management can offer. And as Ms Meškovska explained, this experience and skill are crucial given the inherent dangers of life at sea: “Our business is closely connected with the sea - a treacherous and dangerous place. The sea does not tolerate mistakes.
“We believe that the safety of a vessel relies not only on the vessel, its navigation
and the professionalism of its crew; it also relies on the quality and reliability of every last piece of the lifesaving and firefighting equipment on board. All of these factors together form a protective shield that is important for saving lives.
“Companies like us, who check safety equipment, are responsible for ensuring that seafarers return safely to their families,” she continued. “But lifesaving
equipment can also kill if it is used incorrectly or not in proper working order.
“For example, a small hole or a missing zipper in an immersion suit can take a person’s life in a raging cold sea. If the inflatable life raft does not inflate in an emergency, people may simply not return home. Of course, when people go out to sea nobody ever thinks that the worst could happen, but the reality is that the unexpected can always happen.”
Therefore, Harbour Enterprise’s mission every day is to ensure that seagoing vessels are protected by lifesaving equipment that is 100% functional and safe. For that reason, it employs only the most elite service engineers capable of effectively executing such an important mandate.
“We are the people who are ready to provide protection from the most powerful elements of this planet year-round, at any time of day,” said Ms Meškovska.
“There are no weekends or holidays in the maritime industry.”
Harbour Enterprise’s service is backed up by its compliance with, and adherence
to, all IMO, SOLAS, ISOO, IACS and Flag Administrations standards. It works closely with all of these organisations to ensure that its procedures and services are fully aligned at all times with the latest regulations and best practices.
A perfectly executed service
Harbour Enterprise is focused on the uniform, simultaneous development of all of its operations. With its commitment to working at the highest standards, and its international reputation as a reliable partner with a professional approach to its work, it has recently introduced a brand-new business unit.
The new service provides testing services for cargo cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 100 tonnes, available to vessels
throughout Europe. “This service provides an exciting new direction for our business,” said Ms Meškovska. “It’s an important service that is relevant on almost every ship.”
Additionally, Harbour Enterprise has opened a workshop specifically equipped for filling medical oxygen cylinders. Given the health emergencies relating to Covid19, the company expects this new facility, which will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will be acutely important for its customers.
A personalised approach
Ms Meškovska revealed that Harbour Enterprise’s close relationships with all of its stakeholders, including its customers and staff, is what really sets it apart from the competition. “We treat each client as a member of our family because they are always our number one priority, and many have been with us for decades,” she said. “We also invest a lot in our employees’ qualifications, with continuous training ensuring that we provide the highest quality of services. Our staff are our most valuable asset, and we treat them as such.”
In closing Ms Meškovska reflected on her favourite aspects of the work that she and her colleagues do. “I go to work every day feeling excited because no two days are the same. We’re part of a very important task because we’re the ‘knights’, the protectors of sailors, standing between the dangers of the sea and the vessels. I’m honoured to work for a company that embraces the highest standards of service in such a critical industry.”
