Industrial service group Hertel has doubled its Aberdeen workforce overnight after buying Granite City firm Quest Worldwide from its bosses and taking on all 50 workers.
The Dutch group’s acquisition – through its Rotterdam-based offshore division – takes its headcount in the north-east to about 100 employees.
Quest specialises in the design, engineering management and construction supervision of marine living quarters.
Its senior bosses, including managing director Simon Hay, are among the staff transferring to Hertel.
The move allows Hertel, which has the head office for its UK offshore operations on Teesside, to relocate its business in Aberdeen from one Dyce location to another, larger, site nearby.
Hertel did not say how much the deal was worth but the move is a major step in its plans to grow business in the North Sea.
The company said in May it aimed to create 150 jobs in the Granite City within a year after recently setting up a base in Aberdeen.
Hertel employs more than 10,000 people worldwide and established its UK HQ in Middlesbrough in 1975.
Today, the firm has thousands of employees in the UK and Ireland, constructing, maintaining and modifying plant and installations in the petrochemical, process and power industries.
The UK business forms a large part of global activities turning over about £640million a year, including from Scottish maintenance operations at Grangemouth refinery and Hunterston power station plus a fabrication workshop at Cumbernauld.
Hertel said its acquisition of Quest would see the two companies combine to become a complete service provider for the offshore industry, with specialist experience in the design, engineering, outfitting and fabrication of offshore accommodation modules covering all aspects of the product life cycle.
The group has also set up an offshore fabric-maintenance and industrial service team – headed up by regional director Bob Jack – at its new Aberdeen site.
Hertel Offshore managing director Jon Rokk said: “As part of our business strategy it was important for us to acquire a presence in Aberdeen, which is the European capital for the offshore industry.
“We worked closely with Quest Worldwide on a joint-venture for a North Sea based client, which became the catalyst for this acquisition. It became clear they had the technical skill and experience we had been looking for.”
Hertel has an open day at its Aberdeen office – at Unit 3, Dunottar House, Howemoss Drive, Kirkhill Industrial Estate – from 10am-6pm on Thursday September 30.
The event has been organised in partnership with oil and gas business-support specialist NOF Energy.
