The Greek shipowner Arcadia was named as the 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 environmental 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 14 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 at teamwork as another key word for the company.
No port state detentions
Arcadia has for the past five years had zero accidents, and none of the vessels have been detained by Port State authorities.
Haris G. Giantzikis, the 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 – nine out of ten times when the authorities have made an unannounced inspection to one of our ships, there has been no comment 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 contracted 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 an environmental focus the last years, which ranges from handing out free tickets for buses and the tube to its staff, to running advanced technical programmes to discover how fuel consumption and thus emissions to air can be reduced.