Biollinger Adapts To Address Changing Markets
H agement all play a big part in today's L Bollinger Machine Shop & Shipyard, Inc. - a company poised to deliver the products that he domestic and international marketplace denands. Headquartered in Lockport, La. — a geographic region ripe with able competitors — Bollinger has steadily built an impressive array of new build and repair facilities: expanded computerized engineering, manufacturing equipment processes and total marine service support shops have provided services to help it excel.
"It's a world marketplace now," said Scott Theriot, vice president - marketing/sales. He points out that in 1974, roughly 85 to 90 percent of Bollinger's gross sales came from within a 40- mile radius of the yard; today, approximately 10 to 15 percent of Bollinger gross sales come from that same radius.
The Halliburton project perhaps best illustrates Bollinger's prominence on the world market.
This project, in which Bollinger and Halliburton together developed the concept, is a totally new type of self-propelled, self-elevating offshore support vessel, a vessel designed to service offshore oil and gas production platforms located in hostile environments. To ensure its place in the international market, Bollinger is in the process of becoming ISO 9000 (9001) certified. Strong Commercial Roots One point Mr. Theriot wants to make perfectly clear is that Bollinger is a "commercial shipyard which has done military work ... we have never left the commercial market." Unjustly tagged as a "navy yard" by some, Bollinger best exemplified its flexibility last fall at its first ever triple christening — an event which also showed the yard's ability to simultaneously run commercial and military orders.
On September 24, at the company headquarters, two coastal patrol vessels (Firebolt [PC10] and Whirlwind [PC 11]) and a 145-ft. (44.2-m) supply vessel M/V Mickey Gilbert) were christened. The 170-ft. (51.8-m) coastal patrol boats were part of a 13-vessel contract for the Cyclone class vessels for the U.S. Navy. The Mickey Gilbert was the first of two vessels for Gilbert Cheramie Boats Co., Inc. It is powered by a pair of GM 8 V 149 main engines and features a Schottel thruster and GM generators.
Bollinger Machine Shop & Shipyard has been in business since 194G, and its roots are firmly grounded in the oil field service. In its history, the company has delivered more than 250 vessels, but it has always been more than a newbuild yard. As the company has diversified to remain buoyant in the event that one business segment drops, it must be especially gratified to see busi- BEL0W: Bollinger's Larose facility has been very busy of late with repair work.
