24 The mid-1990s saw shipyards
redefining their roles. It
was becoming increasingly
common for design orders
to come directly from
shipowners. With shipyards
turning into assembly plants, shipowners
also wanted designers to oversee the
construction work. It was no longer enough
for design companies to sell design work –
Deltamarin was consulting and supporting
several European shipyards at the time on
conversions of building and design methods,
while also managing the material orders for
three newbuildings.
“Our ties with shipyards are becoming
closer,” said Björkman in an interview for the
Finnish Tekniikka&Talous magazine in 1995.
“These days you can no longer build a good
design consultancy in a year or even five. It
takes years of work to build the knowledge
base and clientele.”
In 1995, Deltamarin had 210 employees – 40
more than the previous year. The company
had realised early on that it needed to have
enough in-house capacity to improve and
compete. A successful company possesses
niche competence, but is also large enough to
have ‘wiggle room’ in the business. Naturally,
there must also be cooperation with shipyards.
Exchange of personnel between shipyards and
design companies was also viewed as natural
and desirable. In fact, Deltamarin hired 20
ship designers from Finnyards after the said
employees quit their jobs there in 1994, and
the office in Rauma was established.
Deltamarin’s office
at Purokatu in Raisio
1998-2014.