North P&I Club geared for more growth from its enhanced head office
The ‘A’ rated, 150 million GT North of England P&I Club has successfully completed a major expansion of its 17-year-old freehold head office building in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The Club returned on Monday (21 March 2011) from temporary office accommodation across the River Tyne in Gateshead to its refurbished and two-thirds larger premises on the Newcastle Quayside.
The expansion project has been undertaken so North can gear up for further growth, allowing the Club to employ up to 125 more head office staff. The increased capacity will enable it to achieve its goal of increasing P&I market share from 10% to a minimum of 12.5% of the world’s owned shipping tonnage.
Joint managing director Paul Jennings says, ‘Since construction work started 16 months ago, tonnage has grown 50% to 150 million GT. We have steadily expanded since we acquired the new building in 1994 and now have 183 people working in the head office and another 27 internationally. The bigger and better head office will allow us to continue providing first-class service to members for the foreseeable future.’
In addition to adding a fourth storey and increasing the floor area from 2230 m2 (24,000 sq ft) to 3720 m2 (40,000 sq ft), the whole building has been extensively refitted and updated. The premises are an imposing and impressive part of the Quayside.
According to joint managing director Alan Wilson, ‘The construction project has been part of our long-term investment plans and was fully budgeted. We also benefited from a substantial grant from the regional development agency, One North East.’
North provides P&I insurance to 105 million GT owned tonnage and 45 million chartered tonnage, with 4270 ships entered by 375 members. The Club is based in Newcastle upon Tyne (all telephone numbers and email addresses remain unchanged) with regional offices in Hong Kong, Piraeus and Singapore.
Contact: Paul Jennings and Alan Wilson +44 191 232 5221