An Aberdeen headquartered independent freight forwarding firm has achieved industry recognition after securing a top national award for supporting a challenging offshore project.
ACE Forwarding (ACE), which offers specialist logistics services to the offshore industry sector, secured the Project Forwarding Award in the BIFA Freight Service Awards earlier this year. (British International Freight Association) ACE was the only Scottish firm to win at the prestigious London ceremony which annually recognizes ‘best in industry’.
ACE, which was established in 1994 and employs a team of 60 between its locations in Aberdeen and London, won the award for its work with a major energy operator in a frontier offshore drilling project location in Europe that had no previous oil and gas experience, which left a lasting legacy for future operations in the region.
The substantial contract for ACE saw in-depth negotiations with in-country customs authorities over a nine-month period to agree bespoke processes and customs procedures to enable the legal and compliant transportation of operational equipment by air, sea and road, in and out of the country.
Applying North Sea standards throughout, ACE seconded various personnel to support the project in areas such as procedure development, aviation logistics, customs compliance, project freight forwarding including vessel and aircraft chartering. ACE’s sister company, Dangerous Goods Management, deployed personnel to deliver dangerous goods to local staff, as well as aviation systems training to airport staff.
ACE was recognized by the industry body due to the complexities of the project and the seamless and compliant movement of thousands of tonnes of cargo in and out of a challenging location, with zero safety incidents and no delays or impact to the project schedule.
Ed Arnott, Business and Commercial Director from ACE said: “BIFA recognized how challenging the project was from start to finish particularly due to the remote location and that customs procedures had to be negotiated and developed from scratch. As a new area for oil and gas projects, the work that we have done has left a lasting legacy for the region for future development projects.
“To achieve such high praise from our top industry organisation is an honour and testament to the work of our dedicated team ensuring that this project was successfully delivered safely and legally, replicating North Sea standards in a demanding frontier location. It is also a privilege to be the only Scottish winner at the awards.”
The Aberdeen business faced competition from three other UK businesses in the awards category, which was one of nine category awards handed out by BIFA.
Following the success of the contract delivery, ACE has now secured a contract extension with the same client.
This award follows a period of successful commercial development for the company in the past 18 months. Despite challenging conditions, ACE has secured a number of significant and strategic contract awards with major Tier 1 energy operators with a combined value in excess of £8m over the next five years, providing a strong platform for further company growth over the next 12 - 24 months. ACE forecast a 11% increase in turnover in 2022.
