Northwards Ltd.

Sea-Cargo Aberdeen Ltd and Northwards Ltd press release

18-Jan-11 16:36

Sea-Cargo Aberdeen Limited and Northwards Limited are proud to announce an extensive strategic cooperation on all services as from 06 January 2011. The cooperation also include a share acquisition – with Sea-Cargo acquiring 62,5% of the shares in Northwards.

NORTHWARDS LTD is a Shetland based company - leading in freight and livestock haulage to/from the Northern Isles, with offices and depots in Shetland, Orkney, Aberdeen, Scrabster & Inverness – with close to 100 skilled and dedicated full and part time employees. Operating daily from these depots is a fleet of more than 150 modern trailers and road vehicles that are highly versatile in order to support a wide variety of customers’ needs.

SEA-CARGO ABERDEEN LTD is a fully owned subsidiary of SEA-CARGO AS (LTD) in Norway. Sea-Cargo is one of the leading Logistics Providers on the North Sea Market – with ownership of vessels, terminals and distribution networks. The Ship owning unit is in the midst of a complete Fleet Renewal Program which includes building the World’s first Cargo vessels (RORO and Containers) with LNG (Natural Gas) as the only energy for propulsion – setting environmental standards far beyond any other known or used systems.

Sea-Cargo’s head office is located in Bergen on the west coast of Norway, but is complemented by a fully owned agency structure in Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansund, Esbjerg, Amsterdam, Immingham and not at least Aberdeen.

Sea-Cargo Aberdeen Limited (earlier known as Nor-Cargo Aberdeen) has been operational in Aberdeen for over 20 years and has built up an extensive infrastructure and clientbase at its’ Matthews Quay base facility. With regular general cargo vessel shipments to West Africa, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Brazil and the Irish Sea the Sea-Cargo Base facility at Matthews Quay has handled over 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in the past five years.

Sea-Cargo Aberdeen handles weekly cargo vessels arriving and departing for various overseas destinations, typically on tight timescales. A growing part of Sea-Cargo’s work involves shipping material from various locations to and from the Shetland and Orkney Islands – making use of the Northlink vessels with the location of the RoRo/LoLo vessel berth (shared with Sea-Cargo’s own vessel – the SC Aberdeen) adjacent to the Matthews Quay facility. This gives economic and environmental advantages through the minimisation of handling and transportation.

Northwards and Sea-Cargo Aberdeen has for many years had a commercial and operational relationship through terminal arrangements in Aberdeen. However, the new agreement will include a full strategic cooperation where Sea-Cargo’s complete network for sales, marketing and operational service will be made available to Northwards and all its clients.

The Board of Northwards has been restructured to reflect the new ownership of Northwards. Sea-Cargo has appointed Ole Saevild, Tor Gjoestein and Murray Prentice as new Directors effective 06 January 2011. The Board has also initiated a full forward looking strategy process - enabling the company to capitalise on the possibilities that Sea-Cargo will bring to the new joint venture. Murray Prentice, who should be well known to the market and the trade, will in addition to being a non-executive Director also take a corporate consultancy role – assisting the management and the Managing Director in the coming evaluation and strategy process.

Managing Director of Sea-Cargo AS, Ole Sævild, says:
"I am very pleased with the new strategic joint venture – and very optimistic about the possibilities. The concept of this joint venture includes introduction of new and modern services, equipment and not at least new routes to complete the existing transport network. Sea-Cargo, who is also a ship owner with focus on vessels operations and sea based infrastructure, will certainly also be looking at the possibilities of introducing a new and modern sea-based infrastructure – using modern multi-purpose ships with cargo handling facilities for any type of cargo."

Managing Director of Northwards Ltd, Neil Leslie, is very pleased and encouraged by the new joint venture;
"Sea-Cargo will bring onboard a full transport network that will complement Northwards existing operations and with their corporate strength Northwards is set to grow and develop its services in many areas. Innovation and Environment are two key elements for success going forward. The partnership with Sea-Cargo enables us to create new green transport corridors; really setting market standards. "

Further details about the partners can be found on www.sea-cargo.no or www.northwardsltd.co.uk

Contact persons:

Ole Sævild
Managing Director Sea-Cargo
Chairman Sea-Cargo Aberdeen and Northwards Ltd.

Mail: ole.saevild@sea-cargo.no
Mobile: +47 90866708

Neil Leslie

Managing Director Northwards Ltd.

Mail: neil.leslie@northwardsltd.co.uk

Mobile: +44 7703 528178

Moving Forward with the Latest Technology

21-May-07 20:14

At Northwards we are continually evaluating the services we provide to our customers. After extensive research we have now installed satellite navigation and tracking systems from Tom Tom in all our vehicles.

The system not only allows our traffic office to accurately track the whereabouts of our vehicles, but also has the facility to send text messages and work orders directly to the on board units in the vehicles. The onboard units also have the facility to send text messages back to the traffic office.

Our operations staff and drivers are now seeing further improvements the system has provided and this will be a key benefit for all our customers giving them the satisfaction their orders are always being tracked through the supply chain.

At the same time as installing the satellite tracking we are updating our telepohne and date communications. We have contracted BT to install a fully managed IP converged voice, data and CCTV system in our main offices in Shetland, Orkney and Aberdeen. This system will vastly improve our existing voice and data communications and also give us added flexibility of a system of security cameras at these depots. It is firmly believed that these upgrades will help our staff provide a better service level to all our customers.