Meet Mark Cooke: our Head of Energy with over 40 Years of Shipping Expertise

United Kingdom 13.06.25

As someone who has worked in the industry for over four decades, Mark Cooke has been involved in logistics projects of all shapes and sizes.

Now the head of energy at Cory Brothers, he uses his valuable experience to make the most of our comprehensive set of resources – providing clients with cost-effective solutions, simplifying complex challenges, and helping them meet Development Consent Order (DCO) conditions.

In this article, Mark shares some of his background, insights, and expectations for the energy industry in the UK.

How long have you been with Cory Brothers?

I’ve been with the group for around 40 years, so I’ve seen many cycles of change – both internally and within the industry as a whole. When I joined, Cory Brothers was still owned by Powell Duffryn, who sold Cory Brothers to Braemar back in 2003, who of course sold us to Vertom when we formed VertomCory in 2021.

Over the years, I’ve had my hand in pretty much everything across the group – freight forwarding, project logistics, liner agency – and even held a directorship at one point.

Whilst we were with Braemar, I was also involved with developing the technical services side of their business. This is like the other side of the projects service, where you don’t just plan and arrange the logistics but also provide the risk assessments, marine surveying, and other surrounding activities that work in conjunction with these large-scale operations.

When about 70% of project work is in the planning, it’s experience like this that makes a difference. I’ve either faced a challenge before, know how to approach it, or I know a key contact within our group who can help us solve a problem.

You helped form the Energy department two years ago. What led to this?

As you can imagine with our group’s resources and service portfolio, we are involved in most sectors. What we noticed with our industrial projects is that we cover a significant amount for the energy sector – not only in one fuel but across a spectrum of gas, nuclear, renewables, battery storage, and LNG projects. Whether it’s been constructing a site or decommissioning it, we’ve likely done it.

We decided to form the Energy team to both bring these types of projects under a specialist team, and to highlight our expertise in this area to potential partners. More than just a marketing exercise, we really just worked to build on the foundation we already had.

What makes an energy project different to regular freight?

As I mentioned before, about 70% of a project is in the planning. This isn’t just about putting goods in a container and sending it from one port to another. There are often size, weight, access, hazardous, and time considerations with many moving parts – and any wrong move can cost a project owner a lot of money if we get it wrong.

Imagine a normal construction site for a block of houses, where a delay in materials can mean further delays or storage issues down the line because the next stage can’t be started whilst something is outstanding. When you apply this to a large-scale energy project with large volumes of materials en route, you can see how this adds up quickly.

And with that, you also need to know how to react when something does go wrong. No one can control the weather, know when a port will go on strike, or be able to prevent every problem, but knowing how to react in those circumstances is exactly what our clients rely on us for. We work with them to adjust schedules, find solutions, and generally soften the impact of that problem as much as possible.

How important is that local presence?

In the UK, and indeed in many locations where energy projects are completed, that local presence serves as more than a pair of boots on the ground.

Many energy projects have strict conditions for obtaining a Development Consent Order (DCO) – one of which can be that a certain amount of the project’s resource must be sourced through local companies.

We have more than 10 strategically-located offices throughout Britain, covering many of the main ports and freeport areas. These are supported by smaller locations and partners.

This is a huge advantage for us as our local staff likely have relationships with the other suppliers, and we can pull in global resource whilst supporting our client’s DCO conditions. It means that the local community can reap the benefits of the project whilst we bring in the big guns when needed.

Another thing I should mention is vetting and compliance. Obviously, when the government, energy companies, defence, or any kind of big outfit is involved, they need to know their suppliers are above board. Alongside our successful track record with projects, I’m proud to say that Cory Brothers is a Construction Line Gold member, meaning that we have proven compliance and can streamline our approval process.

Can you tell us about a memorable project of yours?

The majority of our energy projects are under NDA, but I can tell you about a project we had in Milford Haven. We have an office there and one of the conditions of the DCO was to use companies with an SA73 postcode, so our team there took the lead on this and called in other colleagues for shipping support.

The product was this special nickel steel plate that’s used for gas storage tanks. And it wasn’t flat plate – these were curved pieces that had to retain the exact shape over transit or they wouldn’t be fit for purpose on site.

They were heavy, oversized, and fragile. And, naturally, the access to the construction site was subpar so we couldn’t use a normal road from the port.

Thankfully, we know a few suppliers in the area and had our ships agency team involved, so we concocted a plan.

Using a special vessel which could drop the front end to unload a vehicle, like what you see on a landing craft, we brought the out-of-gauge vehicles by boat to the shore, created a makeshift access road for them, and drove them up the beach onto the main access road. In a sense, we created our own Ro/Ro dock right there on the beach.

We had a small crowd of locals gathered when the front of the vessel came down and the trucks unloaded. Our collaborators and we had our banners and signage up, the locals cheered the vehicles on as they made their way up the beach, and it was a great day for all involved with the successful execution of a complicated solution.

What do you enjoy about your role after so long in the industry?

My favourite thing is working with clients and getting involved in new projects. That process of researching the project, meeting with stakeholders, and working with your network to plan that end-to-end delivery – I love it.

Another thing about this industry is that there is always something new and it’s always changing. The way that we do things has changed so much since just Brexit and Covid, let alone since I started 40 years ago. We are so much better connected with everyone using virtual meetings, we have more visibility because of supply chain software, and we can be much more effective as a result.

Of course, I love it when a project is executed well as well. There can be months of planning and delivery, so it’s always good to see hard work pay off.

How do you see the Energy team growing?

Although the traditional energy sector is not going anywhere soon, renewable projects are on the rise – especially within freeports. We have offices in six out of eight of the England’s freeports, as well as the Welsh area, so we can assist companies with DCO conditions in those regions.

Since we have highlighted this expertise of ours by creating the energy team, we’ve been steadily growing to accommodate new projects. I can’t say too much, but I definitely see us growing in the future.