Former Odfjell boss Dan Odfjell and Greek owner Peter Livanos agreed their big chemical tanker merger in the simplest way possible.
The Greek family’s chemical tanker operation Seachem was folded into the Norwegian company in 2000, creating the world’s biggest operator in terms of capacity.
Norwegian veteran Odfjell recalled in an interview on the 110-year-old company’s website how trips to Greece finally paid off.
“You know, I had for many years gone down to Greece, to Piraeus, to do some sailing in the Aegean Sea. And each time I was there, I used the opportunity to go up and talk to the old man, George Livanos, Peter’s father,” he said.
“And I hadn’t met Peter, but the old man and I always had a cigar together for lunch. And we spoke about anything and everything,” Odfjell added.
On his final trip before Livanos Senior died, the shipowner told Odfjell he wanted to introduce his son, Peter.
“Peter said to me, very quietly, ‘Dan, when you are ready.’ Those were the only words he said,” Odfjell remembered. “And what did I say? ‘Yes, Peter’, nothing more. And we negotiated the deal.”
The move was part of a decades-long battle with major rival Stolt-Nielsen for supremacy.
“Today we are still competing with Stolt-Nielsen. And thank God for that because without somebody to compete with and keep you on your toes, you are doomed not to do your best,” the former chief executive said.
Dan Odfjell was born in the US before the German occupation of Norway in World War II.
Changing the family name
“I remember when Norway, at that time, was coming out of the war, we were a small company,” he said.
His grandfather, originally called Olsen, was a master on sailing ships who moved to Bergen in the 1890s.
“He had this idea that the future of shipping was in steamships,” Odfjell explained.
The next generation of three brothers and two sisters changed the family name to Odfjell, after a mountain in their hometown.
Odfjell said that the Olsen name was very common at the time.
As for going into shipping, he said: “It was natural for the oldest to be following in his father’s footsteps. Nobody told me to do anything.”
The group took delivery of the world’s first stainless steel tanker, the Lind, in 1960, from Norway’s Stord yard.
The listed company's name was changed from Storli to Odfjell in 1998.
Dan’s son Laurence, born in 1965, is now executive chairman, succeeding his father in the role in 2010.
