The new owner of a Norfolk offshore firm has moved to reassure staff at its Great Yarmouth base that it is “business as usual” after it changed hands in a £40m deal.
Multinational engineering firm Royal Boskalis Westminster bought surveying specialist Gardline on Tuesday, saying it saw “significant synergies” between the “complementary” services offered by both groups.
Gardline employs 750 people globally, but has seen staff numbers drop from more than 1,700 in 2015 as the depressed oil and gas market took its toll, while Boskalis embarked on its own cost-cutting programme in May of this year, with the ambition of saving 30-35m euros annually.
Martijn Schuttevâer, director of investor relations at Boskalis, said the Dutch company recognised Gardline was an important employer in Great Yarmouth “and would continue to be so, going forward”.