By Morten Vestergaard, Chairman of the board
VMS Group

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

After reading the various posts on this blog, one can only rejoice at the picture drawn of hard work, innovative people, sustainability, and a willingness to contribute to the development of "our" port and area.

I would like to think that is also characteristic of VMS Group, where it all began as a draft business plan on a piece of checkered paper in the summer of 2001 - and a rented room on Langerak with two men on the staff. Today, VMS Group has more than 5,500 square metres at its disposal in three different locations at the port here in Frederikshavn - and a staff of around 200 employees when we include our subsidiaries in Brazil and Namibia.

The majority of our facilities in Frederikshavn, namely 4,000 square metres, are located at Havnepladsen, where our machine, turbo and marine workshops and administration are housed. The workshops are the basis for the part of the service work that is carried out locally. In addition, the amount of service performed on-site worldwide by our traveling fitters.

Entrepreneurship in Frederikshavn
In addition to the facilities at Havnepladsen, we have a test hall on Nordhavnsvej, which we moved into in the spring of 2019. We did this to be able to deliver optimally within one of our new business areas: Design and construction of generator sets based on environmentally friendly engine from the American company Wabtec. In 2016, we got the German and Scandinavian agency on the newly developed engine types V250 and L250, which meet the strict requirements for reducing NOx emissions and emissions of soot particles.

As one of the active players at the port, we welcome the development and expansion that is taking place at the port, and we greatly appreciate the establishment of new quay facilities and the expanded draft, which creates opportunities to attract new and even larger customers to the port. With the spirit and entrepreneurship that characterizes the maritime industry in Frederikshavn, there is fertile ground for continued growth and strengthening of Frederikshavn as a world-class international provider of maritime services.

A service we are both proud and happy to be a part of and continue to contribute to.

New facilities enable development
In addition to the sale of the aforementioned engines, VMS Group is also responsible for building the generator sets according to the customers' wishes, including the design of bottom frames, the technical calculations of vibrations and noise levels as well as assembly and commissioning of the finished generator sets on board. It requires a thorough analysis and development work, which is carried out by our experienced people in the engineering department. Last year we delivered the first generator sets to the cruise industry in Norway, and in August we received another order for the delivery of the environmentally friendly gensets, this time to Germany.

The test hall on Nordhavnsvej is absolutely crucial for VMS Group to make optimal use of the new business area. The facilities at the port of Frederikshavn also mean that we can offer testing of other engine types. At Nordhavnsvej, we also have 1,000 square metres of storage facilities, from which large and small parts are delivered daily to projects in and outside Denmark.

VMS Group has thus been part of the port and seen the development of the port in recent times, and there is no doubt that the new facilities at the port in connection with the port expansion provide us in VMS Group and the port's many other skilled players opportunity to grow and develop with the port. We look forward to being a part of that development and look forward with anticipation and joy to the future of the port.
 

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This post is part of Port of Frederikshavn’s blog universe, which we have called THE PORT VOICE. The blog has been put into the world to give the word to businesses and business partners of the port. The purpose is to create a channel, where we can share knowledge, passion and demeanour in an inclusive, engaging and non-profit way. The goal is to have as many businesses, organisations and partners of the port as possible to contribute in order to obtain a platform, where we can learn more about each other, pass on learning, wisdom or demeanour and invite one another into the world, each one of us find ourselves in.