Marine Sales Help Imtech to a Third Year of Double Digit Growth

Imtech said its marine division helped drive its growth in 2012

Dutch technical services company Royal Imtech N.V. said it increased its orders 12 percent to €6.5 billion ($8.5 billion) in 2012 through organic growth and acquisitions, with the company's marine division supporting the increase.

CEO René van der Bruggen said the company achieved double-digit growth for the third year in a row, despite difficult markets, but he said economic conditions affected the way the sales were distributed.

"These conditions have led to a less balanced composition of the order book compared with the preceding years," he said.

"Order book has been under considerable pressure in the Benelux and Spain.

"By contrast, order book development has been good in the clusters/divisions Germany & Eastern Europe, the UK & Ireland, Nordic, Turkey, Traffic & Infra and Marine."

Imtech said it made a small cut in employee headcount within its marine division, as part of a total layoff of about 900 employees, due to continuing effects from low orders in previous years, but it plans to grow the division in 2013.

The company said its sales were driven partly by orders from outside Europe, particularly in the marine division.

Imtech's marine division operates more than 80 service centers in more than 20 countries, and the company plans to double the divisions' revenue to €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2015, according to its website.

Imtech Marine announced in September that it had opened a global "Competence Centre" in Hamburg, Germany to provide environmentally friendly ships, and it said it wants to become one of the top three independent green technology marine suppliers by 2015.