Buckie firm Karl Thomsen celebrate third time lucky victory after claiming prestigious Supplier of the Year award
It was a case of third time lucky for a marine rigging firm when it came to claiming a prestigious award.
Family-run Buckie firm Karl Thomsen Marine Rigging, which is based at the town’s harbour, had plenty to smile about after they were awarded the Fishing News Service Supplier of the Year at an awards ceremony in Aberdeen recently.
The honour comes at the same time as a major anniversary for the company, as the business’s founder, Karl Thomsen, revealed.
He said: “It was third time lucky for us and it just happens to be our 40th anniversary, too.
“We were actually nominated seven years ago; we thought we had it in the bag that time, but obviously not. Everything just sort of came together this time.
“I suppose you could say I was quietly confident going into the awards night.
“Being recognised nationwide, it's quite an honour for a small Buckie-based company. Really, when you look at the harbour here, it's basically not as well used as other ports in the country so we've had to go further afield. That took a long time, establishing strong points in different areas, like going through the years down to Argyll, the West Coast, Western Isles, the Shetlands and Orkney.
“In recent years, we've actually been doing quite a lot of work in Ireland. We've got Northern Ireland, and we've actually been right down to southern Ireland, to Castletownbere which is the biggest port there.”
Mr Thomsen founded the firm when he was 24 with the help of his retired father, who was aged 67 at the time.
The company manufacture wire for a wide variety of uses and are one of the few that can still boast the skill of hand-splicing wire.
Mr Thomsen continued: “It’s mainly the fishing industry we service, but we do work for a lot of other sectors as well, including forestry.
“We’ve done a wee bit with the oil industry and fish farms, too. Also, we’ve picked up work from the work boats now using Buckie Harbour to service the offshore wind farms.
“I think one of the things that helped us win the award is that we supply an excellent service. For example, we can get an order one day and be down the south of Ireland delivering it two days later. The fishing industry doesn’t stand still and if we do, someone else will come in and take our place.”
The firm have recently invested in a huge new workspace at their Commercial Road base, dwarfing the original building. Bult using tradespeople from the local area, the main contractor in the project was Huntly blacksmith Gary Fraser. One of the major advantages of the new structure is that it allows the team to lay out large lengths of wire for measuring and cutting before delivery to clients.
The winners in each category were selected by a public vote, with the company receiving a lot of support from Portgordon.
