Foreship acquires larger premises in Southampton, appoints Tuur Killaars as senior sustainability specialist

The new offices, located in the Director General’s House building in central Southampton, support the Helsinki-headquartered consultancy’s continuing strategy for growth in the UK.

Demand for Foreship’s expertise

Since opening in 2022, the Southampton office has initiated, coordinated or participated in more than 20 projects. 

The move to larger premises within a year of establishing its UK subsidiary provided evidence of continuing wider growth in demand for Foreship expertise, said Lauri Haavisto, CEO, Foreship Group. Foreship now operates nine offices in Europe and North America to support its services for new shipbuilding, conversion and refurbishment.

‘Foreship has strengthened its ties with several of the UK's major cruise ship and ferry owners over the last year,’ said the CEO. ‘The breadth of projects being worked on by our colleagues in Southampton shows that the appetite is strong for the full range of Foreship’s expert services, from ship theory, concept and detail design, dry dock support, and conversions to battery energy storage and alternative fuel feasibility studies.’ 

Foreship UK MD Shaun White remarked, ‘The UK is a global centre for pioneering marine science, research and technology, and the past 12 months have also seen Foreship immersing itself in programs such as the Clean Maritime Demonstrations Competition, Zero Emissions Vessel and Infrastructure competition as well as engaging and supporting industry-led bodies like Maritime UK Solent to promote a thriving maritime sector in the UK.’ 

Tuur Killaars

Killaars joins the company after several years as a Carnival Corp. naval architect. With a master of science in maritime engineering specialising in ship design from Delft University, he had previous roles with Ulstein Design & Solutions and De Voogt, respectively as naval architect and design engineer.

White commented, ‘We are delighted to welcome Tuur to Foreship UK Ltd as we build our team to meet growing UK demand for Foreship’s independent consultancy on newbuildings, ship conversions, alternative fuels and the future technologies which can help owners adapt to the International Maritime Organization’s newly revised strategy for ship GHG emissions.’