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Marine Engineering Galați – more commonly known as MEGA – has officially opened new expanded offices in Galați, Romania. To mark this special moment, MEGA held an in-house ceremony attended by its own team and key representatives from Damen Naval last year.
The establishment of MEGA’s new offices are a response to the company’s continuing growth, something that was alluded to in an article in the September 2021 issue of the Schelde Schakels. It was then that Jean-Paul Claassen, MT member of Damen Naval, said: “We are going to expand in manpower and then it is obvious that we also need more space. The current office is already quite full.”
From left: Damen Naval’s Engineering Project Manager René Meijn, MEGA’s Managing Director Florin Rascanu, and Damen Naval’s General Manager Engineering Bas Timmer cut the ribbon to officially open the new offices.
Located within a stone’s throw from Damen’s yard in Galați, MEGA’s new offices certainly provide the space for a larger team – for now and in the future. “We now have working places for 260 people divided over two locations,” says MEGA Managing Director Florin Rascanu. “Considering that we currently have a total of 176 employees, you can see that we have plenty of room for growth. And we certainly have plans for further expansion; depending on the projects and the markets, and of course our shareholders.”
Besides the matter of space, the new offices represent a significant upgrade in terms of security and access control. “This is important for classified projects like the F126 German frigate project that we are currently working on as well as for Damen Naval’s future projects,” continues Florin. The restricted areas of MEGA’s new offices now use the same levels of security that have been implemented in Vlissingen. “Furthermore, the personnel here also have gone through security screenings; according to the Romanian law, and of course also complying with our requests from our clients.”
The new offices offer MEGA employees a nice, inspiring and modern work environment.
MEGA’s role in Damen Naval projects is to carry out the detailed engineering activities. The icebreaker Nuyina, joint logistic support ship HNLMS Karel Doorman, and Combat Support Ship (CSS) for the Dutch Navy are perhaps three of MEGA’s most notable projects. “At the moment we are working on the detailed engineering for two yachts for Damen Yachting, some technical assistance for the CSS, an OPV 2600 for Pakistan, and of course the F126 project that we have just started. It is busy, but that is normal for us,” smiles Florin.
"The new offices give MEGA the necessary room to grow in line with the increasing order book of our naval business.” Jean-Paul Claassen
MEGA’s team of (detailed) engineers and representatives from Damen Naval in front of the newly-opened offices.
Growing such a large team of engineers has called for investment into recruitment as well as training. This has gone hand in hand with paying close attention to maintaining the highest levels of quality. “This is why opening these new offices is such a big milestone in the development of the company,” says Florin. “We now have the space for future development; not only in terms of numbers of personnel, but also in terms of delivering the quality that large complex projects demand.” When managing such a large team of people, the social aspects of a company also come into play. “It is our company policy to create a good working atmosphere of cooperation; within our own team, but also with our engineering partners in Vlissingen. After all, engineering is like a sporting activity: you can’t work alone, you have to work as a team.”
With just over a year passed since Jean-Paul Claassen stated his ambitions for MEGA, he commented: “I am very satisfied with the timely and very well managed delivery of the new, additional MEGA office, giving the MEGA staff a very nice, inspiring and modern environment to perform their engineering for our naval projects. And giving MEGA the necessary room to grow in line with the increasing order book of our naval business.”