Marine consulting and safety specialists AMS Global Group is marking the 5th anniversary of its first major contract by celebrating its most successful year to date – with five months of the year still remaining.
Despite coming out of an oil and gas downturn followed by a pandemic, 2021 has seen the company record a £3.5 million turnover, take on a dozen new staff, expand its service offering and open its first international base in Malta. A new facility, in northern England will open later this month
Set up by friends and business colleagues, Neil Carr and Gary Bruce, the turning point came after some early challenging years when a buoyant market slowed down and gave the young company an opportunity to offer clients a more bespoke service than they were currently using and at a more competitive price.
In 2016, as the oil and gas industry began to feel the effects of the downturn, competitive costs for high quality service became a factor and in August of that year, they landed their first big contract providing bulk cargo surveying support for a major North Sea operator.
Following that, contract followed contract and the company has gone from strength to strength. From a starting point as specialists in bulk cargo, AMS Global Group expanded and now operates across five divisions – AMS Bulk, AMS Cargo, AMS Marine Technical, AMS Safety and AMS Disinfection – with each division offering a range of services. It now employs more than 40 people across its divisions, warehouse and offices.
“Since landing that first major contract five years ago, we have continued to build the company up, experiencing year on year growth, through what have been several years of extremely challenging times,” said Neil Carr. “When we set up AMS Global, and went round the doors trying to get business, oil was more than $100 a barrel which made it really difficult to get time with people to showcase AMS Global and the cost-saving opportunities we could offer. That changed as the market itself changed and our service offering became more attractive.
“As our reputation in the industry grew, clients asked us to provide a wider range of services. The combination of responding to that and identifying other areas in the market where we could extend our service offering has led to steady and ongoing growth.”
In 2020, Graeme Reid, who has a wealth of management and board experience, joined the company as a director to support the company as it focused on growth markets and record revenues.
“Bringing the right people with excellent industry skills and expertise into the company has been instrumental in growing AMS Global,” said Gary Bruce. “Less than a year after our first big contract, we took on two people to manage and operate the bulk team. We couldn’t afford it at the time, but we realised the importance of that decision because it allowed Neil and me to step away from the quayside and focus on business development.
“As the company continued to grow, we continued to invest in people and we have highly experienced managers running each division, looking after day to day operations. Alongside Graeme, that gives us as directors the capacity to continue to focus on strategic business growth and development.”
The company has several strands to its future business growth with a focus on increasing its international presence. Its new hub in Malta services clients operating in the Mediterranean and the Middle East via the Suez Canal and it is currently in discussion regarding a base in the Indian Ocean with other international opportunities in the pipeline.
It will also continue to expand the range of services it provides across each division to provide a much broader offering to clients.
Plans for the new depot in the north of England will be announced later this month