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GmbH & Co. KG in Leer, which today is a significant German maritime presence. More than 320 highly skilled employees of different nationalities take care of a smooth workflow ashore, while more than 2,800 employees fulfill the transport assignments onboard his fleet of shipswhich operates worldwide. ?Very early we came to the result that we could not keep up with the interna- tional global carriers of the containershipping,? said Briese. ?That?s why we concentrated ourself on special ships withour own freighting company BBC Char- tering & Logistic and Briese Chartering ?that makes us less dependent. Thanks to the CEO of BBC Chartering & Logisticsand his crew it was possible to build up a worldwide network. Our company con- centrates on multipurpose heavy lift ves- sels ? with this we can carry all kinds ofgoods, from potatoes to generators up tocontainer terminals. With more than 120 vessels in service we belong to the largest supplier worldwide. Our portfolio is aligned in such a way, that we go away from a pure carrier towards a single source company. That contains also, among others, that we offer not only stevedoring and ships design and own crewing, but also ships repair and little things which can be done on one?s own.? Very important for this agile shipowner from Leer are flexibility and versatility, and a high quality standard for highsafety standards, modern equipment anda very low average age of his vessels. In addition to this, Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG is using its own worldwide network of partners for ideal transport so- lutions for its customers and, accordingly, being a single source contact person.With its own 100% daughter company - BBC Chartering & Logistic ? around 140ships are represented by 24 agenciesworldwide. The FleetThe early 90s saw a phase of sustained fleet growth, accompanied by a drive to extend the companies portfolio of marine transport solutions and related logisticsservices.Meanwhile 200 newbuildings and more than 100 second hand ships have been initiated. With sales of more than 140 seagoing ships, Briese owns a perma- nent fleet of around 120 vessels with an average age of about 4.7 years. Theload capacity is between 2,500 and37,300 tons.?We always bought, built but also sold many ships in the past,? said Briese. ?The result is a modern, economical, ecologi-cally and challenging state-of-the-artfleet, which are active in the heavy load business. Here, the intellectual require- ments are simply higher. Ships strength and stability must be exactly calculated. The input, also what goes along with thelogistic measures, is unlike higher than compared to the container shipping.? ?Our preferential target is to have ships in our fleet which have a low fuel consumption and accordingly low ex- haust emissions, with at the same timeeconomically justifiable cruising speed. In this context, all our ships are tested again and again during the project phase as a model in towing tanks of the Hamburg Ship Model Basin, HSVA, till we find the optimal hull form with the most efficient drive power. Ofcourse, also the diesel engine manufac- turers must do their homework, which means: we are only interested in dieselengines who can guarantee us a longdurability combined with a high reliabil-ity and the lowest fuel consumption.? Less Fluctuation but Nevertheless Skills ShortageCaptain Briese is not unlike many other executives in the maritime field, drivig companies large and small, in that the number one challenge for continued suc-cess is ensuring a viable pipeline of mar- itime talent.?Ashore, we fortunately see a very low fluctuation, but in the ship operation en- gineering sector, it looks worse than in the nautical sector,? said Captain Briese. ?Particularly in the technical sector we see lack of appropriate qualification. Based on this in 2005 a resolution, to-gether with the ship owner association ?Ems-Achse,? was passed to finance three endowed professorships and a uni- versity teaching position at the Institute of Maritime Studies in Leer for the dura-tion of ten years.? ?To supprt this we collected three mil- lion Euros. The result: in the last semes- ter we had 400 nautical students andstudents of the ships and shipping com-pany management, thus we believe that we can count on more young academics.? The 67-year-old company owner sees his own further art of living down-to- earth: ?I wish myself, when I hand over the company management to my sons, Wilke, hands one of these days, that I still start my day-to-day work with the same good mind and love and the Briese ship- ping company stays furthermo May 2012www.marinelink.com 33MR May 12 # 4 (25-33):MR Template 4/27/2012 11:35 AM Page 33