Braemar Shipping Services chief executive James Gundy has certainly been busy since taking on the top job at the beginning of this year.
The London-listed shipbroking and financial services group made a raft of announcements in its trading update on Tuesday.
These included the integration of the finance arm Braemar Naves into the broking division and a new alliance between its Cory Brothers logistics business with Vertom UCS Holding of the Netherlands.
Since divesting most of its engineering operations last year, Braemar has been clear about its renewed focus on its core shipbroking operations.
"It feels Braemar has turned a big corner," Gundy told TradeWinds. "It's an attractive place to work and I feel that message is getting out there."
New partnership forged
"I am exceptionally proud of the way the team has worked in the past year," Gundy added.
He joked that as chief executive and a full-time broker, "there are not enough hours in the day".
Gundy works closely with chief operating officer and finance director Nick Stone on the day-to-day running of the business.
"Nick's helping me out a lot here, I'm leaning on him a lot, probably too much at the weekend," Gundy said.
"You have to remember I was running the shipbroking division, which was a large part of the business, so it doesn't feel like a large transition to me in fairness. It's all good fun and it's really good to see it coming together."
Gundy explained his way of operating as being "open in approach".
He said: "I want that feeling out there, the fact that people know what's going on. I want that feeling of being proud of the company."
The CEO added that he is not averse to listening to ideas from others and over the past three or four years has brought a lot of what he calls "strong characters" to Braemar.
Unification mission
"What I'm trying to do is bring it all together," Gundy said. "Braemar Naves under shipbroking, that is without doubt the best way forward."
The move means teams work together more and build closer working relationships, Gundy explained.
He said Cory Brothers enhances the group's smaller chemical tankers business.
Stone added that the unit's new Dutch partner is a huge logistics operator in Europe. He said Braemar has worked closely with the company for almost 10 years.
Options being kept open
As for a future sale or merger, Stone indicated that nothing is being ruled out.
"All options are open. The first stage will be working together with profit-sharing arrangements which will encourage us both to do everything we can."
Gundy said he is fairly optimistic about market prospects in the third and fourth quarters of this year.
He believes most sectors will pick up as shipping and the wider world moves out of the pandemic.
The plan is to move some brokers back into the London office after Easter as the UK eases lockdown restrictions.
"The team's done exceptionally well working from home," Gundy said.
"I just feel if we all push ourselves to go back this thing could go on even longer. We are playing by the rules."
Covid-safe working
Stone explained the London office can accommodate between a third and a half of all employees in a way that is Covid-safe.
So some staff will be in, while others stay at home.
"James would say the brokers all want to be in because they all feed off each other," Stone said.
"But the support staff and back office staff have proved they can work from home effectively, so we'll have choices for them."
Braemar also announced that chairman Ron Series is stepping down, but will stay on until a successor is found.
Series ran the company as executive chairman for 18 months while the outfit decided on a replacement for retired CEO James Kidwell. The South African restructuring veteran had stepped into the role only four months after becoming chairman.
Gundy said Series felt the time was right to go so that he could concentrate on other business interests.
