Marine interiors outfitters AROS Marine are always evolving. As a young company in a competitive market, they’re constantly updating their business. Firstly adding turnkey HVAC solutions and then turnkey interiors solutions to their business model, and then growing to produce their own furniture.
So, what have AROS Marine done during the extraordinary circumstances of 2020? The marine interior outfitters have turned their attention to the refurbishment market. We spoke to CEO Giedrius Valainis about how AROS Marine have used the time to upskill and grow as a company.
Why is AROS Marine making the move into the refurbishment market?
This idea is not brand new. We have been discussing the idea for couple of years. We realised that after the boom in the new building sector there will be new stage of maintenance and refurbishment of expanded fleet.
Why do you think AROS is the right outfitters to move into refurbishment?
At the moment AROS Marine is heavily involved in all the major shipyards. We are building cruise ships and have very good knowledge of the different systems and areas being built. Basically, we are involved in all new buildings being produced at the moment. Ranging from ships for RCCL, Celebrity, CCL, Disney, TUI and MSC, to name but a few. When these ships will face their first refits – we will know them inside and out since at somepoints we have produced up to 20% of total interiors.
I understand that AROS Marine is upskilling and training to get a better understanding of the refurbishment market. Where do you start?
When the pandemic hit the world, we saw a nice window where we could reach out to some fantastic people who have worked in the refit industry for many years. Many of them have gladly agreed to train our teams. Our focus is ‘how to compete and win projects in the refit market’. We have started with two main stages: bidding for the project and onboard implementation stage.
What sort of training are you undergoing?
Since the nature of the refit is totally different from the new building we have started by gathering the knowledge in two areas. The first is bidding, such as inspections, calculations, freight, logistics and planning. The second is implementation. Such as, early warning of the problems, storage on site, takt planning, quality control, final inspections, extra works and finally after sales.
And finally, what can you tell us about any new projects in the refurbishment market on the horizon?
To be really precise, the refit market is not completely new for us. We have delivered numerous refits for our good client, a northern European expedition cruise line. We’ve also worked on Ropax ships in the refit size range of 2 to 5 million, but today we want to start growing again. We want to show our ability to compete in more complex and bigger works. There are few calculations on the table but for now we have to support all the cruise lines so they can start sailing in full power again.