PES caught up with Anders Helsinghoff Fjord, CEO of Hagland Shipbrokers, Denmark, to find out about the changes and expansion in his business. Cooperation is a key factor in operations, along with local offices. It hasn’t been an easy time for this segment of our industry but Hagland are innovative and adapt their solutions to the client requests.
PES: Hi Anders it’s great to be talking with you again. It’s a while since we spoke and so a brief overview of your company and the history will be of interest to our new readers.
Anders Helsinghoff Fjord: The pleasure is mine. Hagland Shipbrokers, which is the former North Sea Shipbrokers, started back in 1976 with a port agency, which sold and purchased fishing vessels in Esbjerg. In 2006 I started the chartering department. Later in 2008, we joined the offshore wind market, with our first survey vessel. From there we developed into one of the leaders in offshore wind and have been part of many new vessel designs, as well as inputting ideas for optimisation and cost savings.
PES: We note that you have changed the company name to Hagland Shipbrokers and wondered why and what this means to the company?
AHF: After 18 months of cooperation between the offices in Esbjerg and Haugesund, and then the gradual incorporation of the additional offices in both Hamburg and Aberdeen, all four offices were rebranded into Hagland Shipbrokers.
By doing this Hagland Shipbrokers is now one of the largest and most experienced offshore shipbroking companies world-wide. All offices in the group will share the same visual identity, e-mail and web page. Hagland Shipbrokers now consists of 27 brokers in total. There are 17 working in offshore & renewables, and 10 specialist brokers working within sale and purchase, short sea tank and bulk, fishing and aquaculture.
