Why our new North Sea presence is so important for Geoforce

This week, Geoforce announced the opening of our new office in the United Kingdom, along with the appointment of Chris Gorman as our UK Country Manager. We are very excited about this expansion, just as we were when we added offices in Perth, Western Australia, and Macae, Brazil over the past 12 months or so. In our press release, Chris Gorman talks about the importance of the North Sea market to Geoforce, and I’d like to elaborate on this. This region offers some unique aspects that are a particularly good fit for our company: 1.) The North Sea region is home to some of Geoforce’s earliest and largest customers. From the beginning, companies based there have understood the value that tracking of equipment assets can bring to the industry. 2.) Over the years, we’ve made countless trips to visit our existing customers in Aberdeen and elsewhere in Europe; now we finally have the boots on the ground to match our “be where our customers are” strategy. 3.) As the home to many “mature” fields in which it is very expensive to extract oil and gas, North Sea operators experience even higher margin pressures on operations than others. 4.) This pressure coincides with one of Geoforce’s key benefits: that successful GPS tracking and asset management initiatives can make a significant, positive impact on operating margins. 5.) In the States, Aberdeen is sometimes referred to as “the Houston of the North Sea” due to the concentration of technology and talent. However, once you spend time in Aberdeen, it’s easy to see why locals there refer to Houston as “the Aberdeen of North America”. 6.) We’ve continually been impressed by the commitment to innovation, safety and efficiency that we see every time we visit the North Sea region, so it’s no surprise that there has been a huge export of ideas, talent, technology, and regulatory influence from the region – yet another reason it is a natural fit for Geoforce. 7.) In particular, it is Europe and the North Sea region that provided the impetus, several years ago, for Geoforce to develop the world’s only IECEx/ATEX zone 0 approved tracking device, the GT1 global asset tracker. 8.) European customers have always been helpful and proactive in suggesting improvements in our overall solutions, and we’ve learned a lot from them. All told, we are extremely charged up about the potential for Geoforce’s growth in the North Sea area. For our customers and prospects in Europe, and particularly you Aberdonians, we are looking forward to spending more quality time and building closer relationships in the future.