Superyachts (UK) leave recession in their wake

One surprising corner of British business is defying the global recession - the superyacht industry, which will next week report turn-over is 15 per cent higher, 5 per cent growth in jobs and strong prospects for the coming year.

The UK performance is in stark contrast to that of continental Europe, where manufacturers that dominate the luxury yacht market have seen orders collapse since the failure of Lehman Brothers, the US bank, a year ago.

Thousands of jobs have been lost as orders from investment bankers and Russian entrepreneurs dried up. In Italy, the market leader with €6bn (£5.4bn, $8.8bn) turnover a year, the nautical industry federation said orders came to a “violent stop » at the end of last year.

Superyacht UK, the trade association, attributes Britain’s success in part to the weakness of the pound against the euro, boosting sales of equipment supplies, which is one of the UK’s strongest segments.

At the Monaco Yacht Show next week, the association will report a 15.3 per cent increase in turnover to £410m in the year to June and a 5 per cent increase in people employed to 3,600.

Fifty-six per cent of companies rated next year’s prospects “good or excellent » and 39 per cent “OK ». Most revenue growth was down to new-build orders, with 76 per cent involved in such projects over the past year.

Superyacht UK represents more than 160 companies involved in the design, build, supply chain and service provision of yachts more than 24m long. Britain ranks fifth or sixth in Europe, depending on the yardstick.

“The UK has positioned itself in a way that has a strong spread of special skills within the shipyard industry that are thriving at this time, » said Toby Allies, sales and marketing director of Pendennis Worldclass Superyachts and vice-president of Superyacht UK.

Pendennis, based in Falmouth, Cornwall, makes and refits custom-built yachts costing between £6m and £40m. Mr Allies said the 20-year-old company was in its strongest-ever position and was planning to increase its workforce of 300 by 15-20 per cent, including extra apprentices.

Pendennis’s business model is helping it through the recession: although it has not taken a new-build order since last November, it has six refit projects pending.

Mr Allies said it had a “loyal and long-term » clientele who not only had the funds but were “interested and hands-on in terms of the boats they want ».

Source : Financial Times

Category: Industry