Solico expands composite engineering team

Solico (Oosterhout, Netherlands), a composite engineering specialist for the marine, architectural, defense and industrial sectors, announced on Feb. 9 the expansion of its engineering team in response to strong demand for its bespoke composite engineering services for clients such as Rondal B.V. and Royal Huisman (Vollenhove). Effective immediately, Solico has welcomed two new composite engineering specialists to its team, with a total of 16 engineering personnel now operating from the company’s headquarters in Oosterhout, Netherlands.

Despite challenging global business conditions, Solico says it delivered strong results across all business units in 2020 and has reported a significant increase in demand for composite engineering services within the marine, industrial and defense sectors. The company expects this pattern to continue, with particularly strong demand from the superyacht sector (see CW’s The markets: Boatbuilding and marine (2021)), where new contracts with some of the world’s leading shipyards illustrate the strong uptake of composite materials in applications such as radar masts, canopies, superstructure elements and hatches.

Solico welcomes to the team Jerôme Keulen and Thijn van Zelst. Jerôme studied at the Technical University of Eindhoven and holds BSc and Master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, specializing in complex laminate behavior modeling. Thijn van Zelst joins the company following the completion of his Master’s at Delft Technical University. Both engineers will support all business units at Solico. 

“With some significant new superyacht and defense projects in the pipeline for 2021, it was critical for us to ensure we could match our customers’ requirements, especially with a major architectural project in our sights too. Sustainable growth of our engineering team is a key part of our long-term strategy at Solico,” comments Eric van Uden, Solico. “We’re delighted to welcome Jerôme and Thijn on board and are looking forward to delivering some challenging new projects with them in 2021.”