I was born in 1967 and spent my whole (working) life in the Marine Industry. I grew up up in the city of IJmuiden. IJmuiden is known as the maritime entrance to Amsterdam. As a young kid, I spent many hours on the borders of the North Sea Canal, looking to the huge vessels passing IJmuiden on their way to the port of Amsterdam.
By coincidence, I get the possibility to start working for Wijsmuller in 1987. At that time, Wijsmuller was one of the famous Dutch Salvage and Towage companies in the world. Next to tugs, they just built a fleet of Semi Submersible Heavy lift vessels. I started at the Financial Department. After two years Wijsmuller offered me a job as Purchaser winthin the Technical Department.
In 1993 Wijsmuller Transport merged with Dock Express Shipping from Rotterdam. The new company called Dockwise and started in a new office in Meer (Belgium) in 1993. I joined the new company as Purchasing Manager and moved to Breda.
In 1998, I decided to join Seatrade Groningen BV. At that time, the biggest operator of conventional Reefer vessels with a fleet of 175 reefers. For that I had to move tot the northern part of The Netherlands. The same year I met my wife Emily and in the year 2000 we married. In 2001 and 2002 our two sons Victor and Pieter were born. In total, I worked for Seatrade Groningen BV 15 years as Purchasing Manager.
In 2013 I found a new challenge by continuing my Maritime Purchasing career at Spliethoff’s Bevrachtingskantoor BV in Amsterdam. The same year we moved with the family to Velserbroek. A city between IJmuiden and Haarlem.
Spliethoff (established in 1921) is a huge group and owns following shipping companies:
Spliethoff – Multi Purpose Vessels
Biglift Shipping – Heavy Lift Vessels
Transfennica – Conro vessels
Seven Star Yacht Transport – Dedicated Yacht Carriers
Wijnne Barends – Short Sea/Coastal vessels
Bore Shipping – Ropax/Ferry/Conro vessels
In total the Spliethoff group operates a fleet of over 120 vessels worldwide.
Next to my professional interest in the Maritime Industry I also have a general interest in Shipping. Over the years I built up an interesting collection of books related to Shipping. About 20 years ago, I also found out that there exist a world of small waterline shipmodels in the scale of 1/1250. Today, I have a collection of over 370 models, which means that I'm one of the biggest “shipowners” of the Netherlands.
Best regards,
Martin Adrichem
