Acquisitions, new regulations and new ships under management are in the spotlight

Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management, formerly CMI Leisure Management, has been expanding and strengthening its footprint in the cruise sector.  

After being acquired by Anglo-Eastern Univan Group in 2022, upgrades and integrations have all gone well, and in the words of Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management chief executive and president Dietmar Wertanzl, “We are up to speed and aligned with the mothership now”.

Since the acquisition, Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management has moved into new offices in Miami, together with its sister company Anglo-Eastern Cruise Management, which looks after technical shipmanagement. It offers a full cruise ship operation package, which strengthens the brand and overall cohesion. The cruise company is also able to take advantage of the crewing side of its parent company.

Mr Wertanzl says, “We have offices worldwide including a large crewing office in Manila. We are growing in that location to get support staff, giving us easy access to new crew programmes and crew welfare initiatives via our corporate support.”

Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management is benefiting from using Ango-Eastern’s back-of-house functions to make its operations more efficient.

The company currently has 12 ships under management but has ambitious plans to grow. Other ships joining its charge include two cruise ships from Victory Cruise Lines, where it will manage the hospitality side. It also provides technical management to Margaritaville at Sea and for the Four Season’s Yachts via Anglo-Eastern Cruise Management.  The company’s niche is the expedition cruise sector, but it is open to other business.

Mr Wertanzl explains, “We’re cruise hospitality experts, and any size is good for us. Expedition is where we started out but we’re open to any business – we can do ferries; we can do any mid-size cruise ships or large ships.”

Indeed, the company has branched out into a new vertical – inking a contract to provide its hotel services for six workboats being built for Windcat in Vietnam and operated in Australia and Europe.

Elsewhere, a key focus remains sustainability and how to take this to the next level. Singling out the food and beverage side, Mr Wertanzl highlights sourcing organic food and the importance of indepth analysis of the overall supply chain. 

“It’s about using a regional cuisine, more organic food, freshness, local ingredients. We use the term ‘glocal’. That means we are cruising globally but we are looking at local, local, local on the catering side.”

He applies the same concept to the logistics side, following the impact of the pandemic. “Following the logistical challenges we had with containers after Covid, many cruise operators have shifted from a centralised purchasing mode to more local purchasing,” Mr Wertanzl explains.

“Depending on where we are, we work with agents and local suppliers. We plan and order ahead of time.” He says while there are challenges, there have been continuous improvements.

The company is certainly in a strong position to grow in the cruise sector, and for now, it is looking forward to welcoming the last of SunStone Ships’ Infinity class ships – Douglas Mawson – to its shipmanagement services when the ship is delivered in Q3 this year.