NYK LauritzenCool is to close its branch offices in London and Santiago as of December 31 and centralise headquarters into its Stockholm base.

But the firm has pledged to minimise potential job losses as a result of the move, which is expected to streamline operations and “reduce admin costs,” according to Håkan Winström, vice-president of human resources and admin.

“These centralised headquarters will make NYK a much more efficient operation,” he told FPJ. “However, we are working by every means to minimise redundancies from both the Chilean and London sites, which have nine and 12 employees respectively. Some workers will transfer over to our Stockholm site anyway because of the nature of their contracts, and we also have a number of vacancies available to other employees.

“It is also important to point out that we have a subsidiary agency branch in Santiago with around 15 employees, which will not be affected by these closures at all.”

Since NYK’s acquisition of

J Lauritzen AB’s remaining 50 per cent share in NYK LauritzenCool on July 1, the firm is gearing up to change its name to NYKCool. “We estimate registration for the name change to be complete by mid-September,” added Winström.

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