PRESS RELEASE: OSM Maritime has today moved to address concerns over crew health and quality of life with the launch of a new Catering Service. The global leader in ship management services says poor nutrition can impact upon both crew physical and mental health, which in turn affects overall safety, productivity and performance. It is, the Norway-headquartered firm believes, a serious concern.
Critical issue
“With growing industry demands in terms of efficiency and workload, added to an increase in screen-based tasks and automation, there’s a real need to ensure crew eat balanced, healthy and interesting meals,” states OSM Maritime Group CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen.
“There’s obviously the long-term effects of poor diets, with risks ranging from obesity and high blood pressure through to type-2 diabetes and heart disease, but there’s also day to day dangers to consider. For example sleep problems and fatigue, alongside a lack of energy, motivation and overall job satisfaction. The impacts here encompass everything from increased risks of accidents, to low productivity, reduced operational performance, and poor crew retention.
“As such, good crew nutrition is a fundamentally important issue for owners, operators and the industry as a whole. It should really sit near the top of any vessel and fleet management agenda.”
Specialist focus
In an effort to address the issue for its worldwide customer base, OSM has added to its existing Catering Academy in Manila with the fresh service, which will be headed by Markus Gfeller in the newly created role of Global Catering Manager. Gfeller, a trained chef with over 20 years of experience in the shipping industry, will now manage the whole spectrum of OSM catering activities, including training, the academy, the culinary centre, and OSM’s provision department.
“A happy crew makes a happy ship, and diet is central to achieving that,” Gfeller states. “With this new service we aim to provide safe, healthy and sustainable catering solutions for crew members, alongside unrivalled quality of service from highly competent staff.”
He continues: “Different crews have different nutritional needs and we’ll utilize our unique sector expertise to tailor catering to meet those exacting requirements. OSM’s procurement capability also means customers can expect high quality at competitive prices – delivering both improved crew quality of life and well-being, alongside excellent value for money. We see this as a natural extension of OSM’s offering and a clear win-win for customers.”
Putting people first
OSM Manila will operate as the service headquarters, with the academy ensuring a uniform high quality of training for company catering specialists.
OSM, which boasts over 500 vessels, approximately 30 office locations and some 11,000 expert seafarers, has an acknowledged focus on crew welfare and fair treatment. In 2018 it launched an initiative aimed at safeguarding and improving mental health for those at sea, while last month Larsen’s first move as new CEO was a pledge to build increased opportunities for female seafarers.
The Norwegian headquartered business provides a comprehensive range of bespoke solutions for its customer base – ranging from complete ship management and all-inclusive arrangements to individual value-added services, such as crewing, procurement, accounting and insurance.
