The JCE Story
The early years
J Christer Ericsson, founder and Chairman of the JCE Group, started as a Master Mariner in the merchant navy and as a naval officer in the Swedish reserves. In 1971, after several years at sea, Christer founded the company Container Safe J C Ericsson (“Consafe”) which initially focused on the development and sales of polyester lashings and accommodation modules for both onshore and offshore applications.
Meanwhile, the oil & gas sector in the North Sea was expanding and, as a result, the demand for offshore accommodation was growing. Consafe therefore placed an order for the world’s first purpose-built accommodation platform, or “floatel”, in 1977. The platform, which was of a so-called semi-submersible type, was delivered in June 1978 and named “Safe Astoria”. It was later followed by a number of additional new-buildings. All-in-all, the company (now known as Consafe Offshore) took delivery of 10 accommodation rigs from 1979 to 1982, making it the world market leader in offshore accommodation at that time.
However, in 1985 there was a sudden sharp decrease in oil price, resulting in low utilization of the company’s platforms. Being unable to gain sufficient support from its lenders, Consafe Offshore went into financial difficulties and its fleet of floatels and other assets had to be divested.
Diversification
From now on, based on the experience from Consafe Offshore, the JCE Group’s policy of diversification, conservative financial leverage and no parent company guarantees was established.
In 1986, the JCE Group sold its shareholding in the Swedish Mercedes and Nissan dealership Philipson, which it had acquired in 1984. Some new ventures thereafter are listed below. The list includes many additional opportunities pursued within floatels, which overall has proved a stable and profitable niche market ever since 1985. It also includes many cases where the JCE Group has been part of developing a new idea from its infancy into a market leader.
Selected achievements after 1985: 1987 | Invested in construction, hardware distribution, and forestry in Chile | 1988 | Good Morning Hotels was established (sold to Accor in 1999, at which time the company had 21 hotels) | 1991 | Invested in forestry land in Sweden | 1996 | Invested in hardware distribution in Brazil | 1996 | Invested in Consafe Infotech (today part of Cybercom, a listed consulting company) | 1997 | Safe Offshore was established with three floatels and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. It was merged with Procon in 1998 to create Prosafe | 2001 | BiFab (a Scottish offshore yard) was formed in 2001 | 2004 | Established Consafe Logistics through the merger of MA-System Control (which was acquired in 2003) and ABB Logistics Systems | 2004 | Consafe Offshore was established with three semi-submersible floatels and one jack-up floatel. It was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2005 and later acquired by Prosafe in 2006 | 2006 | BRUKS and FTG were acquired (forestry-related machinery and products) | 2006 | Green Circle Bio Energy was established | 2006 | Consafe Capital Advisors was established with its hedge fund Alcur | 2007 | A major shareholding in Semcon, a listed consulting company, was acquired | 2010 | SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) enters as a shareholder in and strategic partner to BiFab. |
From polyester lashings and offshore services, the JCE Group and the JCE Sphere had now developed into an international and diversified group of companies.
New generation
At year-end 2009, Christer officially retired as CEO but remains as Chairman of the JCE Group and is still actively involved in many issues. In January 2010, he was succeeded as President and CEO of the JCE Group by Hampus Ericsson. |
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Selected case studiesPolyester lashingsContainers etc.Consafe OffshoreGood Morning HotelsSafe Offshore / ProSafeConsafe Offshore – The sequelGreen Circle Bio Energy
 JCE Group AB JCE Group AB, or the “JCE Group”, is an international and diversified investment company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Read more about the JCE Group The JCE Sphere Apart from the JCE Group, the JCE Sphere also includes entities such as Consafe Invest, JCE Chile, JCE Brazil, and Österbodarne Skogsförvaltning.
Read more about the JCE Sphere |