Posted on March 17, 2021
DredgeWire Exclusive with Lachlan Jackson, CEO Ecocoast
Acquiring a new business in early March 2020, on a different continent to all other operations, became afar more significant challenge than anyone could have predicted within days of the deal.Ecocoast, a global leader in engineered products for the protection of coastlines and waterways headquartered in the United Arab Emirates,bought the UK-based Bolinaon 11 March 2020. Within less than a week, both nations were faced with ‘stay at home’ orders and employees having to work remotely. Full lockdowns swiftly followed, and the operating environment for both businesses was severely disrupted.
The planned integration activities between teams, with management from the UAE coming to work alongside the UK team, had to be put on hold. Instead, all parties strategically navigated new working arrangements, project circumstances and some of the most extreme economic events ever seen. As Lachlan Jackson, CEO and founder of Ecocoast, describes, “The world fell apart.” Despite the hurdles of 2020, throughEcocoast’s agile leadership and operating system, the year ended with group revenues up by 17 per cent compared to the previous year and the handling of the pandemic has been key to its success. In fact, the business is starting 2021 committed to further expansion and acquisition.
Protecting supply chains: overcoming hurdles
“Securing our supply chains was one of the first priorities in the immediate weeks of the pandemic,” explains Jackson. “In fact, one of the reasons we felt Bolina aligned well with our values and approach was their supply chain. They had strong relationships with their suppliers going back over 15 years, they were a really trusted partner to everyone they worked with. We’re proud to have a similar approach in the UAE.These strong relationships were key to being able to maintain all projects that were in progress.” With most infrastructure works classified as essential, Ecocoast continued to operate – in new socially distanced ways with teams working in bubbles – throughout much of 2020. Holding a strong inventory also ensured that the business could deliver quickly, despite huge challenges.
Positive partnerships: maximising the established expertise of each business
The acquisition of Bolina, a specialist in safety, security and environmentbooms operating across Europe and North America, expanded the international reach of Ecocoast, who primarily served across the Middle East, Indian Ocean and Africa. But the acquisition was about much more than geographical reach, with the two organizationsspecializing in slightly different areas of the sector.
“Bolina and Ecocoast had mostly the same type of clients, we were just workingwith them in different ways,” said Jackson, “Bolina is the market leader for projects in waterways, dams and critical infrastructure, particularly around safety, security and environment. Whereas Ecocoast is a leader in coastal and marine protection, demarcation and navigation. Together, we now cover coastlines and waterways with a comprehensive range of engineered productsthat are renowned for the highest quality.” The acquisition of Bolina brought Ecocoast expertise in new market segments and added opportunities for further expansion for each business.
Poised for development: ready to cope with pent up demand
Ecocoast’s business is diversified and advantageously not completely reliant on new projects or developments. With the acquisition of Bolina, the development lifecycle meant that operations could continue, as Bolina mainly focuses on operations and maintenance stages, while Ecocoast incumbent focuses on development and infrastructure. In terms of projects, most committed to pre-pandemic continued. Major developments such as new artificial islands for oil and gas extraction in the Middle East have continued. However, thereafter, projects that had been previously tendered and were due to begin in the later half of the year, were delayed. This lag was short term, with the last quarter of 2020 rounding out the year with a flurry of new projects. With the acquisition building to the robust development lifecycle, this meant that the slowdown in project awards did not have a critical impact on the business.
Jackson adds, “Projects have to go ahead and the industry is learning to operate in a new normal as we accept that Covid-19 is a long term reality and work that was on hold is now continuing. It’s been critical to our business that we are ready for pentup demand, and that we have not cut back during the downturn.”
People and talent: nurturing and maintaining loyalty
“It was really important to me that – as part of our response to weathering the pandemic – we didn’t make cuts around our people or suppliers. We’ve maintained salaries, did not make any headcount reductions and we didn’t defer any payments.We’ve invested a lot in our talent over the years, and it would be at odds with our business principles to lose that. I do not agree that people should bear the brunt of cuts in difficult times and it’s been important to maintain loyalty to our teams,” said Jackson. In fact, Ecocoast has increased its UK based teamby 25 per cent since the acquisition of Bolina. “We also continued spend against strategic activities throughout 2020 and focused on what was important to our business. This investment has been fundamental to ensuring that our longterm plans are not sideswiped by the pandemic”, he adds.
Further expansion is also very much on the radar. Ecocoast isactively looking at possible further acquisitions where businesses align with their values and operations. “When we find the right partner, we will go ahead with another acquisition” said Lachlan. For Ecocoast,successful integration is everything and 2020 has proved that this can be achieved – alongside business growth – in the most uncertain of environments.
For more information please visit:ecocoast.com.
