The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Fife marine contractor continues to invest
INDUSTRY: Subsea services move is latest in a line of fleet upgrades for Briggs Marine
An ambitious Fife marine contractor has invested more than £1 million in new equipment to bolster its subsea operations capability.
Hot on the heels of two recent additions to its workboat fleet and last month’s cutting of the first steel for a new generation of public transport ferries to service Woolwich in London, Briggs Marine of Burntisland has moved to invest a further seven-figure sum in its subsea services unit.
“Briggs Marine continues to demonstrate commitment to the subsea services market by investing significantly into high quality, capable cable handling equipment,” Craig English, director of subsea services at Briggs Marine said.
The kit includes two new cable storage tanks at its Burntisland cable depot and a further two 15Te tracked cable tensioner units. The new tensioners were immediately deployed on a renewable energy contract.
Briggs said the new tensioners are a further addition to its cable handling equipment portfolio, and will help the business support numerous framework agreements with key clients.
Mr English added: “These new assets further strengthen our position as a leading provider of turnkey subsea cable installation and repair solutions to the renewable energy and utilities markets.”
The company, which has been operating since the early 1970s and has more than 40 vessels in its work fleet, offers a number of services across sectors from oil and gas to marine survey work, cable maintenance and tug boat operations.
Accounts published in January show the overarching group, Briggs Commercial Limited, produced revenues of £65.6m in the year to March 31 2016, up from the £61.7m of the year previous.
However, at £4.31m, pre-tax profits were £390,000 lower than in the year previous.
Last month, Briggs announced first steels had been cut for the multi-millionpound replacement of the ageing Woolwich fleet, a passenger ferry service it operates on behalf of Transport for London.
The new vessels will replace the Ernest Bevin, James Newman and John Burns ferries that operate the route and were built at the Caledon yard in Dundee in the 1960s.