Page 24: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2019)

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VOICES: Kenneth Dastol, CEO, Zenitel Group

Photo: Greg Trauthwein

Dastol

Zenitel Group is a growing force in the world of maritime and offshore communications, as Kenneth

Dastol, CEO & President, Zenitel Group, explained.

Photo: Zenitel

By Greg Trauthwein

Please give an overview of Zenitel Group today. Looking back at the year and considering only the activity is increasing, there is more activity in the

The Zenitel group is the leader of intelligent commu- the maritime and offshore markets, what are retroft market. This is good for us as we have a huge installed base both on the Norwegian continental shelf nication systems. We are located in 18 countries around the business highlights?

the world with more than 300 employees after the ac- The business highlight is that we are beating the market as well as in the gulf and outside Brazil. For maritime quisition of Phontech. Approximately half of the staf by taking market share in maritime and oil & gas. We we see an increased demand in smaller vessels, work- is working out of Norway, the rest is spread out with are adding new nice references to our already important boats where we have products that ft very well. We have also seen more activity in the cruise market, ex- about 30 employees in U.S., 25 in Singapore, 25 in history. This on top of fnalizing the Phontech acqui-

France 25 in Croatia and the remaining employees in sition. This acquisition is adding technology, products ploration cruises and the fshery feet.

denmark, Sweden, India, China, Middle East, Brazil, and capabilities to the Norwegian entity. But as previ-

Columbia etc. ously said, we have now added #2 to #1 in this market. What are the major drivers for your business today in the maritime and offshore markets?

Products that brings intelligibility, interoperability and

We realize Zenitel is diverse in the markets it And the technical highlights?

serves. Put in perspective the size, shape and We continue to invest largely in R&d and technology “ilities. Crew welfare and operational efciency direction of the maritime and offshore busi- and have released new products and solutions over the nesses to your overall? past 12 months as we have done the years before. All How is Zenitel investing today?

Zenitel is organized around fve segments being, mari- the proft generated in Zenitel is kept and invested in We invest the majority of our funds in internal growth activities, mainly increasing staf in sales and the tech- time, oil & gas, security & safety, industry and trans- people and technology.

nology development. We are also always looking for portation. The maritime and oil & gas is representing external growth opportunities, acquiring three compa- 60% of the overall business after the acquisition. We Where do you see opportunity?

believed all segments will grow, as maritime and oil & We have seen that it has started to be invested in oil & nies in the last fve years. This will be a big focus for me gas are turning back on investments. gas worldwide. There are not many new builds, but as also in the coming years.

24 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • FEBRUARY 2019