Princess Yachts set to make large scale redundancies

Up to 250 staff could lose their jobs at Plymouth’s luxury boat maker Princess Yachts after the manufacturer began another wave of redundancies. The company said it has been facing “challenging market conditions” and will have to “streamline some of its processes” with about 9% of the workforce being let go.

The company, which made about 40 staff redundant earlier this year, posted a £69m pre-tax loss in 2022 but today stressed it had made significant progress this year on plans to improve efficiencies and has a strong order book.

However, the Stonehouse-headquartered business has not been “immune to market forces” and a recent review of the business highlighted that it had to strengthen its resilience against potential future market fluctuations and build a stronger business in anticipation of the market returning to normal.

It means it will be “streamlining some of its processes” with an aim to keep its most experienced and skilled workers with “an increased focus on quality and operational efficiency”. The company said it meant it will be “unfortunately” having to make some staff redundant.

About 500 staff will be placed under consultation but the company said it will actually lose about 250 of its hourly-paid employees across “a number of operational areas”. These will be lesser-skilled shopfloor production workers with the business striving to retain its more skilled and salaried staff. Princess Yachts is now entering a period of consultation with union representatives and those people directly affected.

Will Green, Princess Yachts’ chief executive, said: “We have not been immune to the global downturn that has been affecting the industry. Making any decisions that directly affect people’s jobs is always difficult but we have a responsibility to all staff to ensure we have a strong business and I am confident that these adjustments, together with the progress we have made on our turnaround plans this year, will underpin a much more robust business long-term and allow us to concentrate on what we do best – building the highest quality yachts in the market”.

Earlier this year, Princess Yachts made about 40 office-based business support staff or management redundant across a number of departments including some based in the firm’s Newport Street headquarters. The company still employs about 2,800 people, including those currently under threat, and today Mr Green stressed that despite recent challenges the company had a bright outlook.

He said 2024 has been “an important turnaround year" for the company and that it had “made excellent progress in improving our operational efficiencies and continued to invest in exciting, segment leading products” such as the S80 and S65 models which launched this year and the F58 and V65 that will debut in 2025.

Princess Yachts was taken over by New York-based KPS Capital Partners in March 2023. KPS injected a significant amount of cash into the company to help unlock some of the supply chain and capacity issues. It also approved a multi-million pound investment into the expansion of the firm’s South Yard production facility.

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