Our client wanted us to help them recruit seafarers from their base in Varna, the capital of coastal Bulgaria, and so we opened a branch office that will work with the Seatrans Ship Management office in Constanta, Romania,” says Cristian Dumitrescu, the General Manager of Seatrans Ship Management Romania.
“7Mountains Maritime (7MM) is winning new clients and demonstrating its flexibility by adapting to its customers’ requirements. Their latest client, Vestland Offshore (see facts below) already employed Bulgarian seafarers on their vessels. However, they wanted to focus on management and operations, and they identified 7MM as their best partner for future professional recruitment,” explains Dumitrescu.
“We currently have three employees in Varna. Ivo Zlatanov is a former Captain and the current operating manager at 7MM. Maria Hristova occupies the crew manager position, while Ivelina Stoyanov Banusheva is employed as a Secretary and Crew Coordinator. Captain Zlatanov has been working for Vestland for many years and was already aware of the company’s needs. Maria has impressive experience of the crewing industry, while Ivelina, who graduated from university with a degree in History, Ancient Languages and Philosophy, is new in the shipping sector, but eager to learn as much as possible: “I always feel the sea as really close to my heart because I have a younger brother who works at sea, so starting my career in the shipping industry felt like the right thing to do,” says Ivelina. “On December 1st, 2000, I accepted the challenge to take up the role of office manager at the Bulgarian Manning Agency Promar Ltd. I was later promoted and for the last nine years I have held the position
of Crew Manager. My career with Promar lasted until February 2019. I’m currently enjoying the new challenge with 7MM in the dynamic offshore branch of shipping,” says Maria Hristova.
“The Varna office already has more
than 200 employed seafarers and we recognise a significant expansion at the office, which has been in operation since October last year,” Dumitrescu continues. Vestland is a strong company despite operating in a very volatile offshore market. However, they aim to maintain crews that know how to handle their vessels as professionally as possible.
“They prioritise the quality of their seafarers as part of their goal of continuously developing their operations, so we will support them with mixed crews from our databases of Romanian, Polish, Croatian and Filipino seafarers. This demonstrates that 7MM’s business model has provided enhanced opportunities for our seafarers in order to best meet our clients’ needs.”
The Seatrans Ship Management combined office in Romania now has close to 800 seafarers, and they plan to expand even further. “There is no upper limit to our operations, and we are seeing more and more ship owners and operators coming to us to discuss how to optimise their efforts in the field of recruiting the best seafarers for their vessels,” concludes Cristian Dumitrescu.
New 7 Mountain Management client Vestland Offshore
- Founded in 2008 in Austevoll, south of Bergen
- Project Management within Seismic, OSV and Offshore Wind Industry Vestland Management
- Ship Management Company providing Technical, Crewing, Insurance and Commercia management
- Operating 14 vessels in the Seismic, OSV and Offshore Wind industry
- Office in Austevoll and a branch office in Bergen
- 20 employees on shore
- 350 seafarers employed off shore