IDWAL Greece, an Interview with Konstantinos Machairas, Greek Market Representative, and Marios Buzo, Sales Executive
[Introduction]
In 2023, IDWAL, a leading British ship inspection firm based in Cardiff, set a new record by inspecting 45% of all vessels bought and sold globally. With more than 12,500 inspections since 2019, Idwal’s inspection activities now take place on 15 vessels every working day across more than 100 countries worldwide. A key factor in IDWAL’s success is its on-ground staff conducting actual condition inspections in various countries. We spoke with Konstantinos Machairas, Greek Market Representative, and Marios Buzo, Sales Executive, about IDWAL’s activities in Greece, the world’s largest ship-owning nation. Paul Reeves, the Global Head of Business Development at IDWAL, also attended the interview.
(Interviewer: Hirofumi Yamamoto)
JMD： What can you tell us about the activities at IDWAL’s Greece office?
IDWAL: “Before the outbreak of the coronavirus, not many shipowners in Greece were conducting ship inspections with IDWAL. However, as the coronavirus pandemic spread globally, shipowners around the world were unable to dispatch their own employees or agents to vessels, leading to a rapid increase in requests for IDWAL with our global network of surveyors. The surge in demand for our ship inspections was significant and, in early 2022, we decided to establish an independent office in Greece and then we grew the team with the formal appointment of Marios in early 2023.”
JMD: Could you detail the regions covered by IDWAL’s Greece office in terms of condition inspections?
IDWAL: “The Greece office handles daily interactions with clients from Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey. Requests for condition inspections that come to us are processed by Marios and myself and we work with our operations team and our clients to ensure quality delivery and customer satisfaction. Being close to our customer base is integral to operating in this region and having key surveyors located here is obviously vital too. In addition to these regular inspections, we also arrange meetings for IDWAL’s senior management when they visit Greece and Cyprus, discussing how we can further support our clients in the region.”
JMD: What are the advantages of IDWAL having an office in Greece?
IDWAL: “Firstly, the advantage lies in the size of the Greek shipping market. It’s impossible to conduct business with this significant market of Greek shipowners with just a phone call from the UK. This is because, as would be true in any region, our Greek office staff need to build relationships and networks with our large client base in Greece.
“Currently, we are putting a lot of effort into our ship inspections for S&P (Sale and Purchase) in this region. This is a dynamic sector of the market and we need to maintain our focus and grow our network.
“At the same time, my presence in the Greece office is to grow the broader technical services like our new flagship service, IDWAL ID, the condition improvement program. It delivers defect management, fleet analytics, and benchmarking through detailed ship inspections and reports with dynamic data on an intuitive digital platform, so it provides insight into overall fleet integrity, as well as highlighting specific issues at a granular level.”
JMD：How is IDWAL’s service perceived by Greek shipowners?
IDWAL: “Greek shipowners take the management of their ships very seriously, more so than anyone else. From what I have seen, they probably visit their ships two or three times a year. Greek shipowners know the reality and management situation of their ships better than anyone else. With IDWAL’s entry, they have now been able to easily provide an objective third-party perspective to complement that of their own technical teams and benchmark their vessels against the standards of the global fleet. In other words, Greek shipowners, who had always thought their own standards and management were the best, have for the first time been able to understand the condition of their ships through the impartial eyes of a third party. Many Greek shipowners have become aware of IDWAL’s ‘objectivity’ and ‘transparency’ services, and in this past year, a very large number of Greek shipowners have started to request inspections from us.”
JMD: In the shipping market, there is an increase in new types of engines, such as those fueled by LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) or biofuels. Do you have surveyors who can handle these new types of engines?
IDWAL：” The Idwal surveyor network is a global team of highly experienced marine surveyors who provide a wide range of ship inspection services. Our surveyor management processes are constantly evolving to ensure that we can meet the latest needs of our clients and the industry, and this includes understanding our surveyors’ capabilities in regard to the latest technology. We have secured individuals across the globe with specialist experience in conducting condition inspections on LNG vessels and in LNG terminals, as well as those with experience in blue methanol. What we aim for is not just acquiring expertise and practical experience, but also ensuring that our checklists and inspection processes are robust and that objectivity and transparency are guaranteed.”
JMD: What are the future goals for the Greece office?
IDWAL: “It is an exciting time for Idwal with the launch of Idwal ID and the growing influence of our S&P inspections. We are also developing the tech backbone of the business based on our proprietary data set. Greece is highly relevant as we push the business forward, and listening to our key customers in this prime location is of utmost importance in understanding the services they require. Our goal is to grow the team and to grow and deepen our relationships here.”