Strong prospects in the North American marine equipment market have triggered a new importation and distribution agreement between control specialist Lilaas AS and well-known marine and offshore sales and support organization Imtra Corporation, of New Bedford, MA.
The deal, initially over three years, will see Imtra’s 54-man strong organization offering product and after sales technical support for Lilaas control levers, joysticks and rudder controls in the US and Canada.
Imtra’s clients include vessel operators in the commercial marine, inland waterway, fishing and offshore sectors, as well as the US Coast Guard and US Navy, while the company also supplies products to the oil rig sector. Imtra is widely recognized as a distributor of a broad range of marine equipment including thrusters and stabilizers, control chairs and consoles, complete wiper systems and more.
“We selected IMTRA based on the strong positive feedback we received from a number of suppliers already benefiting from their support,” says Lilaas Managing Director Øyvind Lilaas. “This is more or less a new market for Lilaas and it was very important for us to work through a sales and technical staff familiar with our way of doing things. We believe there is great potential for uptake of Lilaas controls in the offshore and fishing sectors in particular, while the wider retrofit market looks especially promising.”
“We are particularly excited about coming to this agreement at a point when Lilaas is introducing its new generation L01, L04 and L08 range of controls.”
Alex Larsen, Imtra VP Commercial Sales, says: “Lilaas controls fit perfectly with the quality products we specialize in, rounding out the high-performance equipment portfolio that we offer our vessel design and installation partners, as well as end-users.”
“North America offers a strong opportunity for robust and reliable controls. Our first opportunity to make an impact with Lilaas controls in North American will be in early December at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans.”
Picture: Lilaas Managing Director Øyvind Lilaas (left) and Alex Larsen, Imtra VP Commercial Sales, shake hands on the deal that is expected to open up the North American market to Lilaas controls.
