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Thome celebrates 25 years in Philippines, on expansion path

Thome celebrates 25 years in Philippines, on expansion path
Manila: Leading ship manager Thome Group is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the Philippines, as it continues to expand globally.

The Singapore-headquartered group has built up a substantial presence in the Philippines capital Manila, which houses its regional headquarters employing over 300 people in its offices under the TSM Group, while the manager also has 8,000 Filipino seafarers on its books.

Thome continues to expand in Manila with the Philippines supplying the lion’s share of the ship mamager’s seafarers worldwide. Saturday saw it break ground on a new office building in the capital’s business district of Makati neighbouring its three existing office buildings. Thome is also moving into ship management in the Philippines. “We see demand ship management locally [in the Philippines] and we are incorporating a company for full ship management,” said Claes Eek Thorstensen, group president and chief commercial officer.

Ian Garcia, ceo of TSM Group, acknowledged the biggest hurdles remained recruitment. He said finding new talent was a major challenge but one they had been able to overcome due to their good name in the Philippines maritime industry.

It comes at a time of continued global expansion for Thome as seeks to be close to its clients and sources of manpower. Carsten Brix Ostenfeldt said they had expanded with a joint venture in India, and were opening up in Copenhagen as the company had a lot of Danish principals.

It is also opening up in Myanmar with a long-term view to the Southeast Asian nation as a crew supply source. The company also has a presence in Indonesia, Thailand and Croatia.

Thome Group itself is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.