Baltic Workboats AS has been named Saare County’s Taxpayer of the Year for the eighth consecutive year and received its first Innovator of the Year award for its workboat Kratt. The awards were presented at the Saare County Business Awards ceremony at the Kuressaare Cultural Centre.
The Saare County Business Awards are the county’s highest recognition for business achievement, jointly presented by local authorities and business organisations. This year, awards were presented in 13 categories, alongside the announcement of Saare County’s Company of the Year.
According to Margus Vanaselja, Chairman of the Management Board of Baltic Workboats, the Innovator of the Year title is a significant honour for the company, as its ongoing projects have required innovative approaches.
“For example, this June we delivered the tanker RASA to the Port of Klaipėda. To our knowledge, it is one of the world’s first waste oil tankers to carry out its daily port operations entirely on electric power, using either batteries charged from shore power or hydrogen produced from renewable energy. RASA was our first tanker, and we developed the integrated solution for its onboard systems in-house. It is our largest electrical and battery systems integration project to date, and the first vessel we have equipped with a hydrogen power system. Getting the complete solution up and running took almost a year. The most challenging—and also the most interesting—part was integrating the hydrogen system with the rest of the vessel’s systems. The result is a vessel capable of operating for more than ten hours continuously with zero emissions, with its onboard auxiliary systems also powered by electricity generated from hydrogen,” said Vanaselja.
At the same time, Baltic Workboats is leading the EUROGUARD development project, which will see a semi-autonomous naval vessel measuring nearly 50 metres built in Nasva. The project has a budget of €95 million, including €65 million in funding from the European Defence Fund. Baltic Workboats coordinates maritime and defence industry companies and research institutions from ten European countries as part of the project.
The Taxpayer of the Year award is based on Estonian Tax and Customs Board data, taking into account personal income tax received in the previous calendar year. Baltic Workboats employs nearly 200 people at its Nasva shipyard. In 2025, the company paid a total of €6.46 million in national taxes. The average gross monthly salary at Baltic Workboats was €2,986, which was 85% higher than the Saaremaa municipality average of €1,611.
The company also grew last year: Baltic Workboats’ revenue increased by 26.6% to €65.7 million in 2025, while net profit rose to €3.2 million, 2.6 times the previous year’s figure.
This was Baltic Workboats’ first Innovator of the Year award, following nominations in the category in 2021 and 2024.
Photo by Alar Truu / Loomutruu OÜ.
