Anglo-Eastern has always followed basic principles of safety and quality above anything else. As the cornerstone of their growth, from only 38 employees in 1998 to its current workforce of 360, this has been and continues to be the basis of steady but continuous growth, in the face of industry problems and global economic downturns.
Anglo-Eastern’s management, from the initial MBO in 1998 to today have remained steady and continues to retain strict control over all aspects its business. Far from any thoughts of retirement, the Group’s CEO, Peter Cremers and COO, Marcel Liedts seem to enjoy the cut and thrust of problems and solutions associated with building the Group into one of the top 5 third party technical ship management companies in the world.
“There are continuous challenges in building and growing a company of Anglo-Eastern’s size and envious reputation, but our past success have also allowed us to give something back to our seafarers, who come from India, Philippines, Ukraine, China, Latvia and others ; in terms of our cadet programme and Anglo-Eastern Maritime Academy (AEMA), established in 2009 in India.
“This is what keeps us young and enthused and both Marcel (Liedts) and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.” Cremers stated.
In line with Mr Cremers comments above, recent management changes have been made to strengthen the Group’s day-to-day management capability, with Managing Directors having been appointed for different departments and overseas offices. Meanwhile, the senior management positions of CEO (Peter Cremers), COO (Marcel Liedts) and CFO (Richard Wong) have been elevated to a more overall supervisory position, overseeing the strategic direction, and development of the whole Group.
COO, Marcel Liedts said: “By increasing the responsibilities of our senior line management we will be able to maintain our annual growth of 10-15 percent, while maintaining control of the high standards of safety and quality technical management Anglo-Eastern is known for. This will allow Peter, Richard and I to focus on controlling our growth and optimizing our Group operations.
In conclusion, CEO, Peter Cremers commented: “Industry wise, piracy continues to be a growing problem and as a company we have our own views on this subject. Shortages of officers and crews continue to plague us; especially the quality of the seafarers required in today’s complex seagoing environment. All this continues to create cost pressures for the industry and Anglo-Eastern, but as we have said at the very start – Anglo-Eastern stands for quality and safety above all else. Consequently, while ship management fees are always an issue, we have been lucky in having owners that have and continue to support our policies of avoiding short cuts and paying for quality”.