Editor-in-chief Amund Djuve in Dagens Næringsliv handing the Gazelle Award to Ulstein Design´s managing director Rolf Inge Roth. Photo: Jens Sølvberg.
Dagens Næringsliv announced that Ulstein Design had won its annual Gazelle award at a gala event in Oslo’s SAS Plaza Hotel on Thursday, 29th November. Ulstein Design’s managing director, Rolf Inge Roth, and three of his colleagues were on hand to accept the prize from Dagens Næringsliv’s editor-in-chief Amund Djuve.
Gazelles refer to small- and medium-sized businesses that experience tremendous growth and thereby act as engines for national economies. For five years, Dagens Næringsliv has awarded a national gazelle award to the most outstanding example that year. After joining the exclusive company of over 3,600 gazelles in Norway this year, Ulstein Design beat out the best of the best for the national award.
Receiving the award at a special event attended by hundreds of business leaders in Oslo Thursday, Roth tied the company’s success to the commitment of its owners and the knowledge of its employees. “For years, we have been pouring investment and effort into our ideas, and now we are seeing the results. I am proud on behalf of our employees and our owners,” he said.
According to Dun & Bradstreet,
Ulstein Design managed to increase its result by a factor of 22 between 2003 and 2006 without suffering negative growth during any of those four years. The company’s staff has increased from a core of four-five naval architects in 2002 to over 30 in 2007.
Ulstein Design’s tremendous growth comes in the midst of a building boom in the world-wide offshore industry. The company’s revolutionary ULSTEIN X-bow design, featuring a backward-leaning bow that offers vessels better seagoing characteristics, has won a string of awards, international renown and orders from international offshore supply companies. Both Roth and his engineers, however, are quick to give the company’s expertise at assembling competitive equipment packages an equal share of credit for the company’s success.
“The market has grown rapidly, but the key to our growth has been our commitment to our design philosophy and our ideas. As a result, we have a very successful product to sell in this strong market,” said Roth.
After accepting the award, Roth emphasized that the company would maintain its focus on ongoing projects and developing valuable products for shipowners and operators. With design contracts at yards all over the world and plans to develop new designs for other ship segments, Ulstein Design and Roth look set to keep up their record pace.