2024 January/February Marina World

COMPANY UPDATE
HMS Raleigh’s new SP25 self-powered
slipway hoist delivered in December 2023.
Talking to Paul
Illingworth
On company strengths:
As a family owned and run
organisation, there are distinct
advantages regarding the governance
of the business and the freedoms at
the disposal of the directors and I have
been amazed by the passion of the
staff to support our customers. There is
a huge amount of loyalty to the brand
and that is borne out in examples of
length of service of key members of
staff, such as Malcolm Chapman who
recently celebrated 50 years with WISE.
The company is also fortunate to
have some new young talent and this is
a key focus area we are continuing to
invest in, a recent example of which has
been the appointment of a new service
manager and a design apprentice.
During the first month of my tenure,
it was great to meet several of our
customers during a tour of the south
coast of England and northern Europe
and gain operational feedback from the
A W50 hoist for Vlaamse Yachthaven
Nieuwpoort in Belgium undergoing
function and factory load testing before
despatch this month (January).
coal face. My primary focus as the new
WISE managing director is to ensure
we continue to meet our customer
requirements and deliver the highest
standards of support. The technology
employed in our new machines gives
us the ability to remotely monitor
performance and adjust settings,
and we also have a wealth of data
that we are beginning to exploit in
support of effects based/preventative
maintenance.
We will, of course, be judged by our
performance, but I am acutely aware of
the impact to operational output when
a key piece of machinery
is off the road and am
keen to work closely with
our customers to mitigate
such impacts.
On export:
As a UK manufacturer
our home base is our
strongest market,
followed by Europe,
the Middle East and
Asia. China offers an
interesting prospect
upon which to build
existing sales, and
South America and
Africa are new markets
worth exploring. We
have recently seen an
increasing demand in
the industrial sector
with orders from Rolls
Royce, Siemens and
Urenco amongst others.
This gives us a unique
opportunity to reverse
engineer technology
Rear Admiral Asquith CB takes command
of HMS Raleigh’s SP25 controls as VIP
guest for the hoist commissioning day.
employed in our bespoke industrial
products into the marine range.
On hybrid and electric:
Personally, I have not witnessed a
seismic shift from diesel power to
hybrid/electric. The vast majority of
enquiries in 2023 were for diesel and
those who expressed an interest in
hybrid/electric are nervous about the
ability to sustain duty cycles in busy
yards and the life/cost of a replacement
battery. There is no doubt an underlying
intent to transition to green energy.
However, whereas the balance has
tipped in the car industry, the boat
handling market is still in the very early
stages of transition.
www.marinaworld.com – January/February 2024
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