V.Group is "evolving" to take advantage of the huge appetite for outsourcing of ship-management and marine services, according to chief executive Rene Kofod-Olsen.

The experienced Danish executive argues that the ship manager is moving from a transactional model with its clients to one based on adding value to the relationship.

That is a result of changes he has been driving since taking the top slot at V.Group on 1 November 2020.

He argued that these have resulted in the company taking a more "holistic" approach to ship management.

Ship management has historically been a price-based, transactional process, said Kofod-Olsen, who added that the industry needs to listen more to its customers and be more proactive.

He estimated that only 16% of the shipping industry is outsourced at present, compared with rates of between 80% and 90% in other industries such as real estate.

"We have a bigger role to play," he said. "We need to be a credible alternative."

Governments need to step up

Another pressing priority for the V.Group boss in his first year in the job has been dealing with the repercussions of the pandemic.

Kofod-Olsen believes more effort should be made by governments to protect the welfare of seafarers.

"The UN [United Nations] has declared seafarers [as] critical workers, but frankly we haven't seen all governments deliver on that," he said. "It's a public-private collaboration.

"We need to vaccinate seafarers as quickly as possible with the third wave; it's necessary to get boosters into people's arms.

"We may have a supply-chain issue, but it will be worse without it."

Rene Kofod-Olsen believes some governments need to do more to help with seafarer vaccinations. Photo: Mission to Seafarers

V.Group has taken on 5,000 seafarers to help manage the impact of the pandemic — a figure that is close to 10% of the total.

Part of that has been "attritional", reflecting the need to replace seafarers stuck overseas at the end of their contracts, said Kofod-Olsen.

Another chunk has come from the onboarding of new business from strategic clients, with one customer adding 30 ships to the fleet.

Walking the talk

V.Group has put the environment at the top of its agenda and is putting its money where its mouth is, Kofod-Olsen argued.

The company has created a department for sustainable development dedicated solely to environmental issues.

It has entered into a partnership with the Maersk McKinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, aimed at finding practical ways to help the entire maritime industry deliver on its environmental goals.

This will involve huge amounts of research and development into fuels of the future, with the ultimate aim of reaching net-zero emissions.

The company has also grown with the addition of strategic clients, with the LNG sector spearheading growth.

Private equity group Advent International, which became the owner of V.Group in March 2017, remains supportive of the company.

"We have a fantastic owner who has this year injected more capital which can be put to work," Kofod-Olsen said.

Kofod-Olsen joined V.Group from Topaz Energy & Marine, where he was chief executive from 2012 until the company was sold to DP World in 2019.

Before that, he worked in various roles for AP Moller-Maersk, including as chief executive of Svitzer for Asia, Middle East and Africa.