The Group was formed in 2002 when Lorenz Weinstabl (German), Mehmet Aksoy (Turkish) and Kenneth Jan Madsen (Danish) founded Armona Denizcilik AS to act as main contractor for construction of new tankers. Lorenz Weinstabl entered the shipping business in 1987 when he joined his father’s company Niveko, which distributed MaK marine diesel engines and supplied Turkish shipbuilders. In 2002, Mehmet Ak
soy was managing his father’s container and dry cargo shipping company. He expanded and improved the facilities of their own shipyard, Gelibolu, in the Dardanel straits. After years of experience with the Danish tanker operator Herning Shipping, Kenneth Madsen was at that time running his own company IBEX Maritime, which chartered tankers and acted as S & P broker. Armona’s shipbuilding program started in 2002 with the construction of the first two 3500 DWT tankers, after which Mehmet Aksoy left the partnership to fully concentrate on the further development of his shipyard activities. In 2004 the construction of the third and fourth 3500 DWT tankers had begun. The purchase of a brand new vessel, a 3445 dwt, completed and converted to meet the standards set by the Group brought the fleet’s size to five. In 2007 the constructions of four more vessels (the 6400 mts class) began, and the last one was finished in 2010. When the new buildings were put to service, the commercial management of the fleet was done by Ibex. As the Group’s initial set-up did not provide technical management, this was initially outsourced to Fabricius in Denmark and later to V. However, it was soon clear that the best and most cost effective management could be achieved when it was under one’s own control. Therefore in 2009, together with the shipbuilding team, Armona Denizcilik A/S took over technical and crewing management of the fleet. After 4 years of hard work to become a Quality Operator recognized by customers, Armona was encouraged to undergo the next step and take the Commercial Management of the Atlantis Tankers Fleet into their own hands.
