Digitalization is making foray into the maritime industry rigorously in the same way that it was brought into the car industry not too long ago. Ship operations are followed carefully with smart solutions, IoT and AI, although different segments of the industry have reached different degrees of adoption. The areas where they are most developed are in safety, navigation and avoiding human errors.
When it comes to hotel areas, we see most progress in the service and maintenance operations. Smart solutions in service applications are typical, like automatic shutdown of equipment when not in use, galley management systems, intelligent scheduling and cooking pattern mapping, preventive and condition-based maintenance, and IoT. Besides from operational smart solutions, the technology could be used for automating some parts of the sales, engineering, and construction processes as well, minimizing human errors, improving service, and ensuring time schedules are kept.
“We manage large-scale full turnkey projects and make it look easy.”
“Our company has come far in the development of smart solutions for ships, especially in catering operations, and we have seen that the best results are achieved when the systems are developed together with the customer, considering their needs and degree of digital maturity,” says Björn Stenwall, President & CEO of ALMACO Group.
Björn is respected and well-known in the maritime community with a total of 30+ years of experience in the industry. His roots come from MacGregor where he was in charge of its Global Service Division, after which he was headhunted by ALMACO to run the Catering Division and hold the COO position on Group level. This year in January, Björn was appointed President & CEO of the company.
Enabling ‘Turnkey’ Solutions
ALMACO is a full turnkey provider of all hotel, and catering areas including laundries in the marine and offshore industry. Its motto is to manage large-scale full turnkey projects and make it look easy. It provides a comprehensive design, engineering and project management ranging from guest to crew and backend areas.
The company’s catering solutions include galleys, bars, pantries, provision stores, refrigeration machinery and various smart solutions for operating, maintaining and optimizing the galleys. ALMACO is the only company that truly provides complete hotel areas including everything from cabins to public areas such as SPAs, gyms, lobbies, and restaurants. ALMACO is known for providing the widest portfolio on the market, but also for being able to manage large-scale turnkey projects while making it look easy. It’s all about having big dreams and making the impossible possible.
Key Differentiators
ALMACO has three things that separates them from their competition, especially when you consider that all these three things co-exist in the same company.
- ALMACO has a wide product portfolio. There is no other company in this industry that can deliver every single aspect of complete hotel and catering areas to the extent that ALMACO can. And, it’s not just limited to planning the project, it also involves building and delivering the material along with equipment.
- It’s a never-ending cycle of companionship and support throughout the lifespan of the ship or offshore platform. “Our aim is to make our customer’s lives easy so that they can concentrate on their core business,” says ALMACO’s team. When the ship sails off, ALMACO doesn’t stay at the port waving goodbye – on the contrary – it ’sails’ along-side its customers throughout the journey from the first drawing of the ship areas, to the engineering and construction phase, and all the way to providing maintenance and spare parts during operation, and eventually to complete refurbishments.
- ALMACO is able to provide for and manage all aspects of the interior projects as full turnkey deliveries globally. This means time schedules are easier to keep and costs and risks can be minimized. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and this is especially true when it comes to project management.
Therefore, ALMACO takes a lot of pride in being the best-known full turnkey provider of hotel and catering areas in the maritime industry.
ALMACO’s Dynamics
ALMACO can deliver any area of the ship or offshore platform interior. Its global presence and a global network of suppliers and sub-contractors are easy to move which helps in scaling fast.
ALMACO only works with partners that provide high quality and have a proven track record. “We are able to sign supplier contracts based on big volumes, which means the terms and the service provided are excellent and the prices are competitive,” describes Björn.
ALMACO is very actively involved with neutral organizations such as research and educational institutes, regulation authorities and different local and global maritime clusters. “We have found that the absolute best research there is still involves discussions with our customers in different forums,” shares ALMACO’s team.
Staying in close contact with owners, yards, subcontractors, suppliers and other customers and partners is the best way to follow the needs of the market. It is their approach wherein the company gets a chance to be able to react and develop its offerings quickly in the right direction.
To wrap it up, ALMACO can provide any interior area, anywhere in the world, while managing all aspects of the project so that it is delivered on time, cost-efficiently and with high quality globally. “These differentiators make me, and our whole company, very proud of what we do,” concludes Björn.
