Expansion for Bernhard Schulte

Feb 12 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A SHIPPING company is creating 18 jobs and moving to new premises after winning a £88,000 grant to help fund its expansion ambitions.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (UK), which has a workforce of 27, is shifting to larger offices over the next few weeks on North Shields’ Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate where it has been based since 2006.

The firm is the British division of Cyprus-based maritime services giant Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement Group, which is the world’s second largest ship management group and has offices throughout the world.

Internationally, the group has 250 vessels under full management and over 400 vessels under crew management.

The North Shields branch specialises in providing corporate, crew and technical expertise. It currently has 20 ships and two crew-managed vessels on its books.

But the UK division’s plans to add more services including account management and training support, which will create the 18 extra jobs in the next three years, helped it to win the £88,000 Grant for Business Investment (GBI) from One North East.

Bernhard Schulte UK managing director, Arthur Redpath, said: “We had run out of space and were unable to grow the business any further.

“The assistance from One North East persuaded us that we should stay in the area and purchase a larger building in the same development.

One North East’s business finance manager Ken Samson said: “The North East has a long-standing shipping tradition, and boosting the firm’s services will only help to strengthen its prominence on the international stage.”

The GBI is part of a Government package for start-ups and growing businesses and is partly funded by the European Development Fund.