North P&I club starts major headquarters expansion project

7th December 2009

The ‘A' rated, 100 million GT North of England P&I club starts a major 18 month construction project today (7 December 2009), expanding its freehold headquarters building in Newcastle-upon-Tyne by over 50%. The first stage involves relocating all staff and equipment across the River Tyne to temporary office accommodation in Gateshead.

The expansion scheme will enable the club to employ 125 more headquarters staff - two thirds up on the current capacity - enabling North to achieve its goal of increasing P&I market share from 10% to a minimum of 12.5% of the world's owned shipping tonnage.

Joint managing director Paul Jennings says, ‘When we moved into our brand new building on The Quayside in 1994, we had 14 million GT of entered shipping and 64 employees. Since then we have been on a steady expansion path, to the point where over 175 people now work in our head office. The enlarged premises will allow us to continue providing first-class service to members for the foreseeable future.'

In addition to adding a fourth storey and increasing the floor area from 2,230 m2 to 3,620 m2, the whole building will be refitted and updated. The temporary office at Baltic House, South Shore Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE8 3BA has a floor area of 2,460 m2 and a duplicate information technology infrastructure is already in place. Telephone numbers and email addresses will remain unchanged.

According to joint managing director Alan Wilson, ‘The expansion project is part of our long-term investment plans and has been fully budgeted. The timing is also ideal - the economic downturn has enabled us to negotiate very good building rates and control other costs. We have also benefited from a substantive grant from the regional development agency, One North East.'

North currently insures some 350 member groups from around the world, with a total P&I entry of 3750 vessels of 100 million GT (80 million GT owned and 20 million GT chartered). Around 1500 ships are also entered for FD&D cover with the club's large and experienced defence team. The club is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK with regional offices in Hong Kong, Piraeus and Singapore.

North of England P&I Association, press release