MAIN HEAD Radio Holland's new direction DECK HEAD Since the management buyout of Radio Holland two years ago, the company has taken on a completely new direction, says CEO David Slager BODY Radio Holland is probably one of the best known brand names in maritime electronics, with its subsidiaries around the world. It has provided services to some SOLAS 20,000 ships, around half the world fleet. It is hard to avoid the name Radio Holland. The company had a management buyout from previous owners Eurocom at the beginning of 2002, led by David Slager, its current CEO. The company is now 60 per cent owned by Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the remainder owned by management, of which Mr Slager is the majority shareholder. But since the buyout Mr Slager has been streamlining the company internationally, enabling work which has been begun at one office to be completed at another. Mr Slager says that the company now has a "clear direction," Mr Slager says. "We know exactly where we are going." The company is also offering services to shipbuilders and class societies as well as shipping companies, and signing contracts to look after all of the electronics maintenance for ships wherever they are in the world. The strategy is to entice shipping companies by offering top quality service, getting the shipboard equipment working, and then following it up with sales. "Service is the drive the business - if you provide 1st class service then the sales will follow," says Mr Slager. Radio Holland was originally founded in 1916 by a number of Dutch shipping companies with the purpose of installing, maintaining and operating maritime radio stations. The company specialises in satellite and radio communication, automation, observation and navigation systems, installation and supply. The company has sales agreements with many manufacturers, including Furuno, C.Plath, Radio Zeeland, Tokimec, Jotron, Sailor, Broadgate, Transas, Tresco, Nautronix, Marimatech, Seacos, Nera, Phontech. It also provides service on behalf of many of these manufacturers. "We don't want to be tied up with just one manufacturer," says Mr Slager. "We look for manufacturers who can give us a special position." The company's expertise is firmly in the knowledge of its workers - knowing how to get stuff working onboard ships and how to fix it, without being restricted to stuff made by a specific manufacturer. The company claims to be employing the top five radar technicians in the world. This knowledge is backed up by a computer system, with databases of the problems faced by technicians around the world in the past and what has been done to fix the problem. The system can be accessed by technicians around the world. SUBHEAD International network The organisation currently has 49 branches around the world and has plans to expand the network with a further 10 branches during 2004, with the next scheduled to open in Malaysia. The company plans to expand the business through its existing network. "We want to expand our business by entering activities we are fully familiar with in market areas we do not know," says Mr Slager. It has opened a series of new offices, with a further 10 new openings planned for 2004. The names of the offices have been streamlined; for consistency, the office in the Netherlands is named Radio Holland Nederland. Since the buyout, the company has tightened up its quality control, particularly with external companies acting as Radio Holland agents. All agents are required to comply with ISO9002-2000 quality standard. All representative offices are required to act as part of a global corporate entity, not as autonomous companies. This makes a big difference to the service the company can offer to shipping companies, because a job started at one office can be completed at another. There are no problems with different regional offices claiming "ownership" of clients and expecting sales commissions when shipping companies buy equipment or services from a different Radio Holland office. SUBHEAD New services An important new area of service Radio Holland is providing is installing, fixing and maintaining PCs, a major headache area for shipping company IT managers. If shipping companies sign a full maintenance contract with Radio Holland (rather than only commissioning the company when something goes wrong), then the company can perform important tasks on the shipboard computers such as cleaning out the fan and replacing hard drives before they break. The company is also providing consultancy to shipbuilders around the world, sharing expertise about how well the radio equipment works on board ships, which can be used to fit the next vessel. Another new area is service contracts, where the company agrees to take over all of the tasks related to keeping the shipboard equipment running. Before agreeing to a service contract with a ship, the company goes onboard the vessel and collects all data about the equipment and looks at the condition of it. It has also branched into satellite airtime, with a new service Radio Holland Connect, which supports its existing services providing satcom equipment. SUBHEAD Radio surveys An interesting new development is carrying out radio surveys on behalf of class societies. The Curacao office of Radio Holland performs radio surveys on behalf of Lloyds Register and Det Norske Veritas and the company is keen to extend this internationally. It is very difficult for class societies to provide a radio surveying service internationally. Ships are required to take radio surveys every year, but the surveys need to fit in with the port calls and not hold up the ship. This means that in order to provide a radio survey service, class societies need to have radio experts in ever major port of the world. Also radio surveys take large amount of skill which class societies cannot deploy elsewhere. Radio Holland already employs large numbers of radio experts around the world and so is very well placed to provide an outsource service to class societies handling their radio services.