ZF Services focuses on UK growth

This comes after the company moved its manufacturing from China back to Europe because it wasn’t seeing any financial advantage and was still using its German expertise, “so it made sense to bring it back,” Peter Nelmes business manager of marine products, told Maritime Journal.

And now, it’s focusing its efforts on service contracts after re-energising its service dealer network in the UK and seeing a rise in demand from customers.

“We’re concentrating on what we’re good at and what our core business is, which is gearboxes. So we’ve streamlined our portfolio. We were in to CPP propellers but weren’t a market leader, so on the fast commercial side, we now just concentrate on the gearboxes and thrusters,” Mr Nelmes explained.

Through its new service contracts, the company is offering an annual ‘health check’, direct to the operator, through the engine supplier or through its partners, saving customers both time and money in the long-run.

“We’re pushing the aftercare market as much as we’re pushing the marine market, which we think is equally important.”

The windfarm market is proving to be especially big for growth for the company, which already supplies to some of the major players including South Boats, Alicat, Holyhead Marine Services and Alnmaritec.

“We think we’ve probably got around 50% of the market share now, whereas five years ago we probably only had around 15-20%. The vessels in the windfarm market are getting bigger and bigger, and we’re one of the few that can offer the right-sized gearboxes,” Mr Nelmes added.

And, with windfarm vessels operating more and more offshore, the company is seeing more demand, so has strengthened its partnership network.

“The old dealer network was just a dot on a map. Now, all the partners are ZF Marine trained so that each one have practical experience and product training. Now, they’re an extension of ZF,” Mr Nelmes told MJ.

When a repair is needed, if the product cannot be fixed on-site, it will be removed and repaired by either the approved ZF trained partner at the company’s workshop, or by ZF’s own specialists. All the service engineers receive training to factory standard and when working on a job they have access to all of ZF’s information.

Before being awarded ZF service partner status, the dealers undergo a detailed audit and fill out regular feedback forms to help ZF Services identify any emerging trends.

“It’s a rigorous assessment but it helps us to identify where we can offer extra support, ensuring there are no gaps and, at the end of the day everyone benefits,” added Mr Nelmes.

By Rachael Doyle