Polaris Holding Company and its subsidiaries have been spreading their wings and undertaking work beyond the confines of Hamilton docks.

A key reason has been the America’s Cup providing an opportunity for the company to assist with the set up of the event village and associated projects at Dockyard.

Top loaders and cranes were deployed to offload and move containers and freight at that location and at Morgan’s Point.

By doing so, the company has “put its name out there” to promote its logistics capabilities and the services it can offer away from Hamilton docks.

Cheryl Hayward-Chew, chairman of Polaris, said it was a case of Polaris not resting on its laurels.

Having weathered the economic knocks of the multiyear economic downturn that gathered pace in late 2008, the company is back in profit after a number of years of losses.

Its share price has steadily risen and its quarterly dividend has increased twice in the past two years.

For an investor looking to hold stock in a locally traded company, Polaris Holding Company is an interesting proposition.

The company can trace its roots back a half-century to the founding of Stevedoring Services Ltd, which is licensed to provide freight handling services at Hamilton docks.

While the stevedoring business is the best known segment of the Polaris company, it is only one of three wholly-owned subsidiaries. The others are Equipment Sales and Rentals Ltd, and Mill Reach Holdings Ltd.

ESR purchases and leases heavy operating machinery and equipment, while MRH is a real estate arm for the company, with commercial property on a one-acre site.

Polaris has a market capitalisation of $5.9 million. During the past decade its shares traded in the range of $1.50 to $7. The stock has risen since hitting a low in 2011, and was this week trading at $5.

Dividends are paid quarterly and improved from five cents, paid through 2012 to 2016, to six cents last year. Another increase is on the way as the next dividend, due at the end of this month, will be eight cents. The dividend yield is 6.4 per cent.

The company’s full year results for the year ending March 31 will be published in September. However, the half-year results were encouraging, showing earnings per share of 55 cents. The company has a book value of more than $8 per share.

Stevedoring Services was founded in 1966 and became a publicly traded company in 1983. Polaris was incorporated in 2011 to allow the restructuring of Stevedoring Services.

While there has been a generally upward trajectory in the fortunes of Stevedoring Services and Polaris, the business was buffeted when hard financial winds blew during the island’s prolonged economic downturn of the late 2000s and early 2010s.

The decline in the volume of containers moved at the docks during that period indicated the depth of the economic depression. In 2008, some 45,110 twenty-foot equivalent containers were moved by company. By 2013 this had fallen 27 per cent to 32,841.

There has since been a steady improvement. In the last full fiscal year 35,000 containers were moved, a yearly rise of 5.4 per cent.

Increasing freight numbers have been attributed to Bermuda’s improving economic stability and fiscal growth.

Polaris saw its profit rise to $1.4 million for the full year to March 2016. That contrasted with a near half-a-million dollar loss the year before.

Weaknesses and inefficiencies were exposed during the downturn. The company reacted by looking internally at its operations, said Mrs Hayward-Chew.

That resulted in a renewed focus on staff and improving two-way communication between workers and management, leading to greater insight in how operations could be improved. That commitment to employees is ongoing.

“We have been investing in our staff with a 2017 training and certification path under way that will ensure that our stevedoring team will be certified to international standards in various areas of stevedoring,” said Mrs Hayward-Chew.

“The certification by the Caribbean Maritime University, will equip the team with best practices for hazardous materials handling, health and safety and efficiency maximisation.”

Stevedoring Services has a 52-member team. Last year it placed third in Bermuda’s Top Ten Employers listing in The Bottom Line magazine — the second consecutive year it had made the list.

It also conducted an employee survey that showed satisfaction levels placed the company in the top 10 per cent of Bermuda companies.

“This is a reflection of the company’s renewed commitment to engaging staff and union as the company moves ahead,” said Mrs Hayward-Chew.

The expansion of services beyond the docks, such as with assisting in the setting up of the America’s Cup base at Dockyard, is something Polaris is looking to build on.

“We have efficiency with cranes and loaders that is second to none.

“The leadership and staff have worked together to increase efficiency rates per ‘gang’ to more than 18 container moves per hour, per crane and lowered damage rates significantly, to less than one-tenth of one per cent of goods moved,” said Mrs Hayward-Chew.

“We have the goals in place and we share them with staff and the unions so everyone understands where we are heading.”

With the impact of the America’s Cup, this year is shaping up to be the busiest in a decade for Stevedoring Services and, by extension, Polaris.

The volume of movements at the docks in April was as high as it had been in April 2008, before the boom period ended.

Mrs Hayward-Chew is pleased with how the company has coped with the extra workload, such as opening the docks on Saturdays to minimise any dockside congestion caused by the extra freight.

She added: “We like to think of ourselves as quietly powering Bermuda.”

Describing the factors that have gone in to the company’s success, she said it was having a diverse board, “stellar finance team and experienced and committed dock management and staff”.

Polaris Holding Company trades on the Bermuda Stock Exchange using the ticker POLAR.BH

Disclaimer: This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or adopt any investment strategy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results