By
Rebecca Gibson |
Cherie Rowlands discovers the ethos behind outfitting-and-design firm Blu Marine’s first seven years of success, as its unparalleled approach springboards the company into more prestigious cruise projects
Facing each other across a single, shared desk in Ireland five weeks into its 2007 inception, Blu Marine’s only employees – founder and managing director Craig McCoo, and operations director Stephen Donnelly – were about to embark on a design-and-outfitting odyssey.
Having set up the firm because they wanted to do a better job than their competitors, the company had just landed its first order – an £11,500 commission for famed guitarist Eric Clapton’s yacht.
“All we did was fit bulkhead panels to the new bathroom, but we were overjoyed with that job,” McCoo says. “We quickly went through the next six months with projects of up to £50,000 – each on cross-channel ferries – before we got our big break with a £300,000 subcontract for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd subsidiary Croisieres de France’s Bleu de France. Having convinced them that we could do the job, we did it extremely well and Blu Marine has blossomed from there.”
Seven years on, the duo is joined by a staff of 22. Employees are a pivotal part of the company mix which has helped its solid rise from an initial turnover of £500,000 in its first year, to a 2014 target of more than £7 million. “We have now impressed people at Carnival UK, P&O Cruises, Holland America Line, AIDA Cruises, Pullmantur Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd via Pullmantur, as well as Carnival Australia,” McCoo says. “We are successful because we really do care about everything and only employ people who seek perfection.”
Blu Marine prides itself on the high calibre of its employees as Ross Welham, design director since 2011, explains: “Our multi-skilled staff works in an integrated way with knowledge shared across all departments. We have people with a lot of outfitting marine experience who know what it’s like to do the job in drydock – it’s easy to sit in an office sheltered from on-site difficulties, but with everybody included from the outset, we know from the initial stages how a project will be finished and fitted.”
McCoo adds: “You would be staggered at the amount of times we have to tell some of our clients that they shouldn’t use a specified fabric or wall covering because it isn’t IMO- or similar-approved. Having only ever worked on the marine side, our in-depth knowledge means we would never specify a product that was not suitable for this environment.”
Flying in the face of traditional industry design norms is an intrinsic part of this relatively young company’s progress. “We don’t settle for what a typical design firm tells us,” says McCoo. “We suggest different, more suitable and more cost-effective materials through alternatives, with greater design buildability so that projects can be completed quicker, more efficiently and using less energy. Clients get exactly what they want – a high-quality end product, but at a reasonable price.”
Welham is quick to agree: “Our in-house capability enables us to offer this level of service. Design is far more than the visual of seats and cushions. It’s the communication of all these aspects – including the accounts and operations departments – everybody putting their ideas together before I present the proposal to the client.”
“We are not the kind of company where one person can look at some pretty material, say that’s nice and all of a sudden there’s a design department,” McCoo summarises. “We take bare steel cabins and turn them into luxurious spaces from scratch – we are a proper design company wrapped up in a big refurbishment company.”
This impressive pedigree has led to a wide range of refurbishments including recent work on Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth, a prestigious project completed in May 2014 that resulted in a resounding accolade for the firm. “The brief was for cabins and public spaces – there were more than 20,000sqm of carpet laid in 14 days and more than 450 cabins refurbished by us,” McCoo says. “Although we had little control over the initial choice of fabrics, textiles and soft furnishings because the design was given to us, there were occasions when we advised on alternatives because it wasn’t possible to get the specified material in time. Only today I’ve taken a call from the ship about our work – the feedback is very positive. They welcomed the fact that we weren’t a company which produced endless variation orders and just got on with it.”
With a number of refits for Pullmantur also under its design-dedicated belt, Blu Marine has grown its relationship with the cruise line over the years. Its latest project, the 1,440-passenger cruise ship Zenith, was completed at the end of 2013. “We were responsible for several public spaces including the toilets – a notoriously difficult refit space because of the time pressures involved – as well as the cafe, casino and teens’ area with a range of budgets,” Welham says. “We constructed a teen zone from scratch using LED lighting and white laminates with lime green furniture to ensure a modern finish. The cafe was fitted from the ground up on a limited budget. It was a fairly large space and we needed to create a relaxed atmosphere, which we did by using planters to divide up the room, providing private spaces for people to sit and socialise in. These were used in conjunction with both LED and glass lighting to make the area interesting. The casino was also refreshed with the use of LED lighting in combination with wall coverings.”
Another project, completed in May 2014, gave the team a welcome opportunity to demonstrate the scope of design possibilities for passenger ferries, an area they are passionate about. “We opened the eyes of Wightlink Ferries – as a reasonable-sized operator – to undertaking design that they wouldn’t normally consider,” Welham explains. “We gave ferry St Clare a cruise ship feel, but within budget. This meant luxurious furniture and a spacious layout that we ‘specced’ with robust materials, all designed completely in-house. Wightlink is so happy with the outcome of this project that they are committing more spend to interiors and we are working with them on future projects across the fleet.”
Understandably cagey on details of upcoming commissions, McCoo confirms that the team has a number of cruise line projects in the pipeline. “We’re working on an exterior grill and bar area for a cruise company, developing an outside restaurant and drinks area,” he says. “It is entirely new and designed and prefabricated to quickly fit on to the aft end of the vessel. The theme is timber and smoked grey with anthracite seating, and within that is the grill and server area.
“In the past few days a request of the type we have been aiming to attract has dropped through our door – five areas onboard a cruise ship from the fleet of a very well-established cruise line. We have been asked to survey the ship and come up with five design themes and a price for the work. Once we complete this job successfully, it is likely that will lead to further drydocks for them in 2015.”
This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2014 edition of Cruise & Ferry Interiors. To read the full article, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.