71 INTERVIEW A vision for the future SunStone Maritime Group’s Niels-Erik Lund and Carsten Lund explains to Alex Smith why the expedition shipowner is changing its strategy as it continues to expand SunStone Maritime Group decided to make its first move into the expedition cruise market in 2003, switching its focus away from passenger ferry and large cruise ship ownership and management. Since that time, the company has grown dramatically to become the biggest tonnage provider to the expedition cruise market. “We started off operating vessels for others, while at the same time buying second-hand ships and refitting them for expedition cruising,” explains Niels-Erik Lund, founder and CEO of SunStone. “We became the biggest operator in the market, and learned a lot as we did so. All that knowledge then went into building the Infinity-class vessels.” The Infinity class was the first series of new ships that SunStone had constructed, meaning it had to establish its priorities and needs for the new vessels while designing them. According to Carsten Lund, SunStone’s chief commercial officer, this meant finding a balance between a desire for innovation and a need to comply with a demanding set of safety requirements. “When we started designing these ships, we took the approach of finding the best solutions available for both safety and sustainability,” says Carsten. “Our ships can be far away from ports and other people, sometimes for weeks at a time, which makes it important that we choose well-proven technology. At the same time, we Photo: SunStone Maritime Group “ Going forward, we will only be building our own ships” Niels-Erik Lund
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