Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding new name makes little difference

2020 saw the start of Damen Naval, one of the new divisions into which the Damen Shipyards Group is divided. In practice, people working at Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding do not notice much of the new organisational structure, says Director Naval Sales Support Richard Keulen.

On January 1 last year, Damen started working with a new structure consisting of seven divisions, of which Damen Naval is one. Since then, seven became six as two divisions merged to form the Mid-Sized Vessels division.

The idea behind the restructuring was that, after some disappointing results, Damen was looking to increase profitability and efficiency. The solution lay partly in the creation of integrated divisions, each of which could operate to a certain extent autonomously within the Group. Each with its own sales and product development departments, for example. But each still being able to make use of a number of central services if necessary. The autonomy would make the divisions responsible for their own profits or losses. In other words: each division must be able to support itself.

For DSNS – the core of the Damen Naval division – not much has changed in the day-to-day operations, says Richard Keulen. “We were already operating as a kind of division,” he states. “For example, before the restructuring, DSNS was already largely commercially responsible for our naval portfolio, working on its development ourselves.” The company name on DSNS employees’ business cards will be adjusted slightly, and communications such as electronic signatures will include the Damen Naval name and logo. “You can already see this on our beautiful 2021 calendar,” says the Director Naval Sales Support. According to Richard, “the name Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding gradually giving way to Damen Naval in most forms of communication will be a smooth process”.

The name ‘Schelde’ from Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding – which evokes so many old memories of shipbuilding activities in Vlissingen – will not be lost; a Limited company with the same name will continue to exist within the Damen Naval division. In addition to Naval and Mid-Sized Vessels, the Damen Shipyards Group consists of the Yachting, Workboats, Repair & Conversion and Maritime Ventures divisions.