Greek shipowner Arcadia has been named Greek Tanker Company of the Year 2007 by the shipping newspaper Lloyds List in London.
Arcadia’s success is based on hard work and a clear strategic goal of being a safe and environmentally friendly transporter of cargoes worldwide.
Arcadia Shipmanagement was established in 1998. At that time, its main focus was on wet cargoes. Although it has not yet celebrated its 10th anniversary, the company has its roots in an old shipping family and in the Greek shipping tradition.
Today the fleet contains 15 large oil tankers and one smaller product tanker.
When DNV Forum met Arcadia’s managing director, Nikolaos I. Manias, in May, he emphasised that quality and safety had been the company’s main focus during these first ten years.
“I was proud when Arcadia received the award as Tanker Company of the Year 2007, but I’m even more proud of what lies behind this award. What all our employees – from the youngest cadets, via the masters sailing on our ships to the top management onshore – have achieved to win such an award,” he said, pointing to teamwork as another key word for the company.
No port state detentions
Arcadia has had zero accidents during the past five years, and none of its vessels have been detained by port state authorities.
Haris G. Giantzikis, the company’s technical manager, elaborates on the port state figures: “These figures show that 0.12 observations is the average result in the whole Arcadia fleet’s port state control books. In other words – on nine of the ten times that the authorities carried out an unannounced inspection of one of our ships, they made no comments at all. On the tenth inspection, there was one observation.”
While some of Arcadia’s competitors and newcomers in the tanker market have increased their fleets when old vessels have come up for sale, Arcadia has ordered new vessels, mainly from Korean yards.
“To my knowledge, we had the biggest shipbuilding programme for tankers of more than 100,000 dwt last year. Six large tankers were delivered,” explains Mr Manias, adding that, in addition to a new and properly maintained fleet, a well educated and trained crew is also of vital importance.
Environmental focus
A certified training centre and certified quality and environmental management systems are also in place. Arcadia has had a focus on the environment for the past few years, ranging from handing out free bus and tube tickets to its staff to running advanced technical programmes to discover how fuel consumption and thus emissions to air can be reduced.