In Focus: Daniamant’s consumer may change, but legislation drives safety products

While Berit Hansen, Daniamant Denmark’s MD, notes that consumers are changing, with more focus on a ‘green future’ (which she sees creating possibilities), right now new legislation is her company’s driver.

“It’s not easy to sell ‘nice to have’ products compared with ‘must have’ products,” she says.

Recently the marine safety equipment manufacturer launched its ODEO SOS which it describes as a cutting-edge electronic visual distress signal (eVDS).

It’s a high intensity strobe light providing an internationally recognised SOS morse signal. The fourth eVDS in Daniamant’s range, the ODEO SOS is designed to meet US Coast Guard requirements, meaning it can be used instead of pyrotechnic flares in some countries, when used with the distress flag (provided). It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and built to the highest standards of quality, reliability and durability.

“Daniamant has a wide range of safety products which we have divided into three categories: safe people, safe sailing, safe systems,” says Hansen. It often uses external consultants or companies to bring ideas to fruition. And there have been so many of those that Hansen, is unsure of how many safety products it currently manufactures.

That’s partly because new products are often a spinoff from an existing product.

“Last year we introduced W3 polar – a lifejacket light tested to -54 degrees to be used in arctic waters, which is a spinoff from our popular W3 lifejacket light,” says Hensen.

The company is traditionally known for its lifejacket lights. “Other projects can be driven by needs from our customers, and other again driven by new legislation, for example from IMO.”

Development time can be anything between 18 and 24 months with the approvals taking the most time. “We can do a lot internally and with our long lasting suppliers and partners: develop, setting milestones, finding the right parts, suppliers and making prototypes which we can test internally.

“Legislation in general is good [in the market]. But the marine industry is very conservative. It takes long time to make changes, both to existing regulations or new regulations.

“Some of the new EU legislations like CBAM [the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism] or registration of working hours per employee, is time consuming with no benefit to the company. We do not earn more money but we get to have more administration staff.”

Hansen has been with Daniamant for 30 years, MD for four. She was general manager when the company bought EchoPilot in 2017.

“Buying EchoPilot was a good idea and has taken us into a new market (leisure),” she says. EchoPilot makes forward-looking sonar (FLS) that scan and display the seabed in front of a vessel, especially useful for uncharted waters and remote areas.