Harlyn Solutions Managing Director Hamish Adamson often resorts to a TV drama staple to explain what Harlyn does. It's a metaphor based on a minute precision skill but, make no mistake, Harlyn's work is on a vast scale. It specialises in moving complex and unique cargo. So, if your business is subsea pipelines and you want to arrange for a 250-tonne plough to be delivered halfway around the world - you call Harlyn.
But back to that TV cliche, Hamish explains: “I assume it happens in real life but we all know it from TV dramas. You know when the surgeon doesn’t move a muscle but calls out ‘scalpel’ or ‘swab’ and it’s handed to them – well that’s like us responding. Our clients need to be 100% focused on a project and they need tools, machines or just solutions that enable them to continue what they’re doing without breaking concentration.
“Whatever their job is – our job is making their life easier. The challenges they face are removed and replaced with solutions. They already have plenty to worry.
Or as the Harlyn Solutions website puts it – “Give us a call. We’ll give you a solution. Go back to changing the world.”
One such solution was the time during the pandemic, when a client wanted to repurpose an old oil dormitory in the Port of Tyne for use as a hospital in Peru. The cargo was lifted onto a barge and off it went. Planning, marine mitigation, mobilisation support, mooring plans. All sorted by Harlyn.
“Businesses and individuals only have a certain amount of capacity and thinking space to problem solve,” says Hamish. “We want them to be free to think about the next challenge, knowing that solutions meeting the industry’s highest standards are in place.”
Increasingly ongoing and future challenges for Harlyn revolve around energy. From geopolitical pressures to the climate change clamour for net zero. The world is suddenly very aware of the need for secure green power.
When a client wanted 49 pieces of previously demobilised equipment to be located, catalogued, checked and delivered to help lay and repair cable from offshore wind farms, they trusted Harlyn with the challenge. “Some of the equipment had been in storage for years. It needed to be re-certified, fixed, and re-packed in order to be transported. It was a logistical nightmare – that could have eaten away at their time and budget. Things like this can quickly derail projects if you don’t have a turnkey solution
“The work they do is enabling a greener, better world. It’s exciting and inspiring to be a part of, but ultimately – someone has to gather, load, and move all the parts and equipment necessary to ensure it happens at all.”
Despite Britain entering the early stages of a recession, Hamish remains confident that Harlyn can continue to go from strength to strength.
“Our customers continue to report massive increases in workload and general sense of busyness. The fear of the recession is there and obviously cuts in public spend can impact hugely but the need for energy and energy solutions, in particular, isn’t going to change.”
Harlyn’s future and the service it offers will also be shaped by how it reacts to challenges, and the strength of its ever-developing team.
That includes investment in tech, like the the purchase of a lidar drone which allows Harlyn to scan clients’ cargo from the air. If clients don’t have a complete cargo inventory, a 3D cargo model can be produced which helps to locate each item.
But, while Harlyn continues to seek out tech-led solutions, its most important investment will always be its people.
“At Harlyn we have a culture whereby first and foremost you’re a Harlyn Engineer. You’re not a mechanical engineer, you’re not a naval architect or whatever – you work for Harlyn and we do the job that we do and no one else does it the way we do.
“We do a lot of training courses and we’re always learning but we also learn by seeing and doing at all levels. So, when I was recently in Spain to oversee a project for a nuclear power station – a graduate engineer came with us.
“He didn’t have to be here and there was certainly no additional cost to the client – but that is how our development works.”
Finally, although both the work and the challenges are global – Harlyn remains firmly rooted in the North East, which is increasingly acknowledged as Britain’s biggest green energy hub.
“The biggest constituent of the North East green investment is offshore wind and there’s so much activity around our ports serving these projects. Beyond that, we work quite extensively with a number of people burying and installing subsea cables. That specialism lives in the North East of England.
“We work across the world but we’re very proud to be a young company, based in Blyth,” says Hamish.