MEET THE MEMBER – Oy NIT Naval Interior Team Ltd.
The Finnish shipbuilding industry turnkey providers are very busy, and NIT is not an exception. We managed to get hold of NIT’s Director of Sales and Procurement just in-between purchasing and sales meetings. The customer schedules determine the day.
Photo by NIT
Who are you? Sebastian Lagerlöf, in charge of the sales and procurement operations in NIT. I am also one of the company owners since January 2018. My whole working life has been in shipbuilding industry, so I know the business and people in this industry very well.
What is your company specialized in? We specialize in building ship interiors. We build everything from restaurants to crew recreation areas and staircases, with everything included. We do the design, project management, procurement, supervision, delivery… i.e. we are a full turnkey contractor.
Tell us about your clients and other key shareholders and partners? Our main clients are shipyards. At present we mainly deliver new building projects but we also deliver refurbishment projects. For the latter the clients are the ship owners. So, a few but very big clients.
We have a large stakeholder and partner network for example in design, installation and material manufacturing. We manage the network to deliver the area being built, we lead through the project.
What services or products can other YardMate members offer you? Basically everything that you can find in the interior of the ship; design, workforce, special or bulk materials. It can even be services such as training our personnel. Everything we need to build the ship!
What are your expectations for YardMate? As a turnkey contractor we are on the buyer-side. We expect to get new valuable contacts who can be used in our projects, so that together we can generate value for our customers.
What are your future needs a) regarding personnel? The future of the industry and our company looks good and we can plan for new recruitments. We are constantly looking for project managers, engineers, site supervisors, designers, and at the moment, purchasers. If we find a perfect match we’ll hire immediately!
b) regarding sub-contractors and partners? One needs to develop the network all the time. We are constantly looking for new contacts and developing our relationship with the companies we already work with. We need to seek new opportunities all the time. We are looking for everything that can be used onboard, and also the workforce related to the building itself.
We are always open to explore new contacts and see what works with us and what doesn’t. You learn by being unprejudiced and talking to new companies, even if it would not turn into a business relation in the short run.
Anything else you wish to say to us? Our slogan is ‘We build great spaces’. I can invite everyone to build great spaces together with us!
And what can I say – this sounds great! Shipbuilding and networking at its best!