Damen Takes Second in Maritime & Aviation Sector in MT500 Rankings

Damen Shipyards Group has achieved second place in the maritime & aviation sector in this year’s MT500 rankings of the top 500 companies and institutions in the Netherlands. It also came twentieth out of 500 in the overall ranking, its best ever result.

In the ratings breakdown, Damen achieved the full five stars for product leadership and employment practises. The winner in the maritime & aviation category was national airline KLM, with the Port of Rotterdam coming third.

The MT500 is the result of an annual survey of business decision makers that asks them to assess and rank companies in the same and related sectors as their own businesses on product leadership, customer focus and excellent execution. This year was the eighteenth time it was conducted, and for the first time ‘reputation as an employer’ was added as a new criterion. The research was carried out by the Centre for Business Innovation at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

One particularly gratifying result was that, out of the 47 family-owned companies that featured in the MT500 rankings, Damen came in first place, ahead of household names such as Heineken, Jumbo and the VDL Group.

While Damen came 20th in the overall rankings covering all business sectors, three places higher than in 2017, it came even higher in two of the four categories. In both product leadership and employment practises, Damen came in fifth place out of the 500 companies featured, a superb result and a reflection on the group’s dedication to both innovation and to nurturing and supporting its workforce.

“We are very pleased with this result,” said Carola Servaas, Employer Branding & Campus Recruitment at Damen’s HR department.

Carola added: “Especially as this is a peer-to-peer assessment which means that respondents only judge companies that are active in their own industry. The recognition that colleagues from our own industry appreciate our customer service, product leadership, quality of execution and good employment is fantastic as they are attributes to which we all contribute and can be proud of together. Moreover, ranking as the fifth best employer in the Netherlands is most welcome at a time when the labour market is very tight. At the moment we have more than 100 vacancies, so all internal and external support in attracting new colleagues is most welcome.”