The new Canadian owners of the BiFab offshore engineering construction company – which has yards in Fife and in the Western Isles – has praised the quality and commitment of his new workforce.
BiFab was yesterday saved from bankruptcy after being taken over by Newfoundland-based DF Barnes, which is known known for its construction and fabrication work in the <Canadian> province’s offshore oil industry.
BiFab has been a major player in the Scottish oil and gas sector for 25 years, and over the last five years or so got involved in renewable energy by building large jackets for wind turbines to be used in offshore Scotland wind farms.
“These are huge structures, about the same height potentially as some of our offshore structures like Herbon, only they’re steel,” said Sean Power, vice-president for business development at DF Barnes.
“Allowing us to branch into the renewable sector just provides a significant new avenue of business for us. And new opportunities both in the North Sea as well as the North Atlantic Seaboard – it’s a big deal for our company,” he added.
Power said there is no plan to overhaul staff and operations BiFab, and that DF Barnes has ‘complete confidence in the workforce’ there.
“We’re really impressed with the management and the workforce,” he said. “So we’ll be maintaining and keeping those and we’ll be offering whatever support we can from DF Barnes and DFB Driver teams.”
The Scot-Govt stepped in to provide financial assistance, Power said, and DF Barnes was able to close the deal to take over the company after 18 months of talks.
19 Apr 2018
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