Strong wind blows in sails of North Sea boat transfers firm

A CARDIFF firm providing sea-borne transfers to North Sea wind farms, has increased its turnover six-fold in just over two years.

Severn Offshore Services is on target to hit an annual turnover of £2.7m this month – well ahead of initial forecasts.

The company, based at Cardiff Bay, which started with just one boat in April 2015, now has a crew of 50, operating six boats out of Lowestoft providing crew transfers to wind farms off the coast of East Anglia.

Severn Offshore Services managing director Ryan Hopkins said: “We operate a state-of-the-art fleet that is able to provide a specialised service to the burgeoning off-shore wind farm industry. Our boats are well equipped and fast and can deliver service crews safely to the wind farms in even the roughest of weather conditions. That greatly helps to reduce costs for our clients and limit the number of days when the boats can’t put to sea.”

The company is currently servicing a major contract for James Fisher & Sons plc – a leading British provider of marine services. Prior to basing the fleet at Lowestoft the company was working out of Helgoland transporting service crews to the Meerwind offshore wind farm in the German sector of the North Sea. With help from a small administration team led by operations manager George Fox, Hopkins owns and operates over £15m worth of assets.

Mr Hopkins said: “We are consistently winning work against strong international competition. We are currently negotiating a major contract to provide services to a large wind farm off the east coast – and if we are successful work on that is due to start next April.”