Does British boat building have a future?

[rafiki_]

Henry, I agree with very many of the replies that your OP has attracted, so I'll try not to repeat those. A few thoughts in no particular order, and very much imho:

1.UK boat builders should in general stop at the 70/80 foot mark. None of them has a brand that stretches significantly into the world of UHNWI (=$30m net worth) owners, which is where a Princess x95 or y95 sits (those being c£10m boats). Harsh reality is you walk into Yacht Club of Monaco - your mates say what's your new boat? - you say "Princess" - everyone sniggers. The very opposite of Sanlorenzo, Riva, Customline, Canados and many others. Princess got this all wrong when they launched their first big boat, the 32M which sold a tiny number (6?). From then on under Chris Gates leadership they just kept on digging that particular hole ( alongside some other holes) until they finally cancelled their M series but by then all shareholder value was destroyed in a 10 year slow motion car crash that was called out in real time on here many many times.

2. Sunseeker is a struggling slight exception. Their brand is such that they got some meaningful level of market penetration among the limited subset of UHNWIs who are ok with their brand positioning. But still destroyed a monumental amount of shareholder value.

3. UK boat builders make nice craft in the 40-70 foot zone where their brands work. But they need to build them VERY differently. It's all been covered before so I won't repeat. The recent Aquaholic series of videos showing 3000 people building Princesses and making plywood models and hand making wiring looms made me and everyone with a shareholder-brain just weep. So many people standing around doing nothing.

4. Jrudge has the demand/sales right in his post 12. The gradient of the "can't afford it" curve is far steeper than the UK builders ever realised. Assume you make a product people want and you price it at £0.5m. X people can afford it. Price it at £1m and perhaps 0.2X can afford it. Price it at £3m and some tiny fraction of X can afford it. Now that can be ok if your production is limited anyway, and Princess have full order books, but in order to do that they are selling at a loss, such is the awfulness of their production methods.

5. Henry I don't share your faith in KPS as a manufacturing turn-arounder. The management teams they hire do that, not KPS themselves, and no shareholder can get decent management teams into UK boat builders. The succession of Messrs Gates, Sherriff and now Green at Princess are all incapable of doing what is needed. The conundrum here is that these turnarounds need really great and brave managers, and those folks are in such demand from other financial owners that the rewards from 5 years of your life in Plymouth (or Oundle) simply aren't enough, and KPS won't/can't afford to pay any more (even in the form of dilution). By the way, your timelines in post 46 are sleepy - things need to happen much faster than that.

6. People talk of Fairline's "failure" in the sense they were in administration. Essentially the same happened at Princess - they were sold for nominal sum. It is a mere technicality, not a difference in substance, that one was in administration and the other sold for £1 or whatever. My guess is that KPS are now profoundly worried. After they acquired Princess for ~nothing in Q1 of 2023 they put £50m in, and most of that has been burnt. Latest accounts (2023) show the business burning cash at a rate in the order of 15-20m pa. That is shocking. KPS will struggle to find the money or the belief to put another £50m of good money after (imho) bad. We have nearly a year to wait before we can see how 2024 turned out.

7. Rachel Reeves isn't helping. Business owners or bonus receivers - the customers of bigger boats - are worried. Her new Employer flat tax rise (where national insurance included a £615 flat charge per employee) costs Princess is £2m pa next year.

8. So it all comes down to production for the UK builders. Their product is very good, and looks just right, and they can sell enough units even at today's sky-high prices, but they lose money on each boat. Get rid of the stand-around-do-nothing employees. Do not make your wiring looms and a million other things in-house. Do not make plywood replicas in a massive building. Get components from other places. Get rid of all those marketing folks and YouTube creators, abandon the massive stand at Dusseldorf. Break up some parts of your production by giving the businesses to new owners so they become independent suppliers and make their activity profitable. Stick at the size zone where your designs are good and your brand works. Copy the Italians. Do all this fast, literally in the next 6 months. Unless these nettles are grasped, Princess's £500m+ forward order book is nothing to be happy about - it is like 500 opportunities to sell a £1m boat at a £150,000 loss.

9. Lastly, I don't much buy any comparison with cars. I bet that most of those Rolls Royces mentioned are ordered by the owner's PA by email, with 10-15 mins input into the purchase process by an owner whose passion or care for the product is pretty limited and whose time budget for talking to a sales rep is 3 minutes - it's a tin box that fulfils a practical need for a couple of years. Boats are not like that.

Absolutely agree with your point 8. In fact I suggested just this approach to the Poole based builder some years ago. The CEO was keen, but not the frozen middle managers. The CEO left not long afterwards. Perhaps he knew he was pushing a bolted door? Point 9, many RR’s are corporate purchases. Hotels in HK, Singapore and the Middle East are particularly keen. The trunk is specified to fit 6 full sized LV suitcases in recognition.

 

[Seastoke]

Forgive my jovial turn of phrase. I’ve long since given up caring how people refer to me. I’ll be judged by my actions and how I treat people when I meet them

well Henry , I have had a new lease of life down to you. I decided to take a shower , and send my bus pass.

 

[henryf]

well Henry , I have had a new lease of life down to you. I decided to take a shower , and send my bus pass.

Finished off by a nice splash of Old Spice…

 

[Seastoke]

Finished off by a nice splash of Old Spice…

I think us sealine RS use,Brut

 

[jfm]

I think what we most learn from these types of thread is just how many experts there are who have never been involved in any aspect of boat building or selling, yet have all the answers!

I'm surprised none have them have bought Fairline and implemented their ideas, I wonder why that is...

Because they are not dumb enough, that's why. I and many colleagues/friends could have bought Princess when KPS did, and we looked at it hard with all the data, but only for an hour. The upside even if we did a great job wasn't worth the effort and risk, so better to deploy capital and time on other things (though we would have been more advanced than KPS now are and we would have a very different team running the company).

Fairline is too small to do a turnaround on, even though it is in much less deep of a hole than princess. If I had to own one of the two starting tomorrow, I'd choose Fairline. Not commenting on the allure of their boats - I'm just wearing a shareholder hat. But still, the juice isn't worth the squeeze so the smart answer is to own neither.

So I'm very much disagreeing your sentiment - that the folks running these companies are any good at that task. They aren't imho. I have said that many times on here, including back when Chris Gates was running Princess, burning £1m cash a month, trying to sell M-class boats to folks who just didn't want the Princess brand or style (especially the interiors), and generally taking the business several steps down the deep hole that it is now in. That was all called out in real time

Incidentally, I just flew back last night from a weekend skiing in Courchevel with the guy who bought Fairline from Graham Beck in 2005 - he did ok enough on that deal but if he had his time over again he wouldn't have bothered!

 

[jfm]

@jfm You’ve mentioned the maximum length thing before and from what I understand Princess don’t disagree.

They may agree now, with hindsight, but they didn't when they started building M Class etc which was called out on here as a dumb move. IMHO they need to stop at 80 feet. Up to that size, I think £6m, and speaking very generally, boats are bought with a bit of loan finance and paid for from income, and Princess can just about get away with their "one style fits all" interiors where the 80 footer looks like a big 40 footer. When you get to £10m of 95 footer and bigger you're selling to folks with capital, mostly UHNWI, and the brand simply doesn't cut it. You're competing with Sanlorenzo, Riva, Canados, et al, and Princess can only sell to a subset of buyers in this price zone namely those who are Princess diehards or folks who don't care and/or are ok with the interiors. Furthermore Princess can only sell to a further subset namely buyers who aren't bothered by the credit risk of say £8m in stage payments before they get ownership of the boat. And anyway when you're making the boats so inefficiently you're just losing money on each unit sold, it's better not to sell too many.

My mentioning Rolls Royce was to say there is a market for a luxury product made and designed in the UK on the world stage and despite being told otherwise the order book is healthy so I’m not wrong. As you rightly point out that could just mean loads of opportunities to lose money unless something is done.

There is that market in the car world if you're brand name happens to be Rolls Royce. There isn't that market in the boat world if it happens to be Princess, other than in the <80 foot market when Princess is a leading brand.

The one area I would question is the wooden full size mock ups during design.

Let's agree to disagree. I would cancel the wooden models thing immediately. You speak as a boat customer and obviously it may benefit you. I'm speaking from the (hypothetical) point of view of a shareholder who wants them urgently to stop burning a couple of million pounds a month.

You will know KPS, I don’t. I felt they were a bit more than just a luxury brand house, more focussed on manufacturing. Ultimately it isn’t my world.

I don't know them but I know the business they are in. I would love them to do well here but my educated guess is that they will be quite worried about how this is going (2 years in) and how much cash is being burnt. The latest numbers after KPS acquisition show (to me, on an adjusted true run rate basis) a negative gross margin, which is terrible. They need to manufacture differently and lose the people who stand around doing not enough (as per Aquaholic's videos). Maybe KPS made all those changes in 2024 and we will see the results in 2024's accounts (a year from now) - I hope so.

I'm not sure I ever answered the question in your thread title. Yes, but not under the current management.

 

[henryf]

I think us sealine RS use,Brut

I was a Blue Stratos lad myself. Nailed me a winner so can’t complain

 

[henryf]

They may agree now, with hindsight, but they didn't when they started building M Class etc which was called out on here as a dumb move. IMHO they need to stop at 80 feet. Up to that size, I think £6m, and speaking very generally, boats are bought with a bit of loan finance and paid for from income, and Princess can just about get away with their "one style fits all" interiors where the 80 footer looks like a big 40 footer. When you get to £10m of 95 footer and bigger you're selling to folks with capital, mostly UHNWI, and the brand simply doesn't cut it. You're competing with Sanlorenzo, Riva, Canados, et al, and Princess can only sell to a subset of buyers in this price zone namely those who are Princess diehards or folks who don't care and/or are ok with the interiors. Furthermore Princess can only sell to a further subset namely buyers who aren't bothered by the credit risk of say £8m in stage payments before they get ownership of the boat. And anyway when you're making the boats so inefficiently you're just losing money on each unit sold, it's better not to sell too many.

There is that market in the car world if you're brand name happens to be Rolls Royce. There isn't that market in the boat world if it happens to be Princess, other than in the <80 foot market when Princess is a leading brand.

Let's agree to disagree. I would cancel the wooden models thing immediately. You speak as a boat customer and obviously it may benefit you. I'm speaking from the (hypothetical) point of view of a shareholder who wants them urgently to stop burning a couple of million pounds a month.

I don't know them but I know the business they are in. I would love them to do well here but my educated guess is that they will be quite worried about how this is going (2 years in) and how much cash is being burnt. The latest numbers after KPS acquisition show (to me, on an adjusted true run rate basis) a negative gross margin, which is terrible. They need to manufacture differently and lose the people who stand around doing not enough (as per Aquaholic's videos). Maybe KPS made all those changes in 2024 and we will see the results in 2024's accounts (a year from now) - I hope so.

I'm not sure I ever answered the question in your thread title. Yes, but not under the current management.

Thanks for that. I pretty much agree with everything you say. The extra bit over 80 feet is neither here nor there in terms of satisfying the owners although that X95 has been remarkably successful.

You’re spot on with the wooden mock ups. We are on the same team but for different reasons. You’d buy the company but not the boat, I’m the other way round - although you didn’t and wouldn’t buy the company because you don’t like cranberry juice or something along those lines.

I’m beginning to think that if you know what you’re doing you can make quite a lot of money turning companies round but if you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose money at an alarming rate.

 

[roa312]

Princess isn’t the Ford of the boat world. Within its size range it’s up there with the best of them. People have mentioned someone like Sanlorenzo but you need to walk in with £10m. Too rich for me I’m afraid and many other new boat buyers.

With £2-5m what am I missing? Give me 3 builders who blow Princess and Sunseeker into the weeds. I looked and couldn’t find them.

I agree with your sentiment that British builders are strong in the 50–80-foot range - at least to me, they definitely seem strong enough to justify a continued presence in the market. I can't comment on the differences in quality/price mix compared to Ferretti, Azimut, Prestige, etc., as I haven't studied these aspects. But from an outsider’s perspective, I think that British builders produce great-looking boats with excellent layouts and so I essentially agree that their future should depend on their ability to improve profitability (production) or alternatively, sustained external financing.

It’s been interesting to learn from the forum (particularly from jfm) that the brand reputation of Princess and Sunseeker among UHNWIs isn't as strong as they might have hoped. This is especially surprising given that both builders have seemed so hell bent on introducing new "largest-ever" models every few years, while their smallest offerings have also grown in size. As others here have suggested, I suspect that the margins on larger boats must be highly attractive to management. I noticed that Sunseeker named its largest range "Superyacht," and it will be interesting to see if they continue to go even larger in the future.

From jfm’s comments, I gather that to the large-cap private equity funds, the time, effort and risk/reward required to turn these companies around don't align with the amount of capital that can be deployed. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if ownership of Fairline (or potentially Princess, should KPS fail) remains with small or mid-sized PE funds. I've also wondered whether a billionaire with a passion for boats and sufficient resources might eventually acquire these companies. I imagine the annual cash spend wouldn’t be too different from owning football clubs, golf clubs, etc. For instance, the Danish boatyard X-Yachts is owned by a Danish IT billionaire, and I recently learned that the superyacht builders Oceanco and Turquoise Yachts were acquired by an Omani billionaire (from oil/gas I believe). I’m sure there are many other examples as well.

 

[petem]

To answer Henry's original question...

"Does British boat building have a future?" It's just about got a future but it's far from rosy and extremely perilous.

Chances of the brands surviving (as manufacturers in their own right) for next 10 years? I'd give them:

Sunseeker: 90%
Princess: Less than evens
Fairline: 30% (if they're lucky)

 

[DAW]

It’s been interesting to learn from the forum (particularly from jfm) that the brand reputation of Princess and Sunseeker among UHNWIs isn't as strong as they might have hoped. This is especially surprising given that both builders have seemed so hell bent on introducing new "largest-ever" models every few years, while their smallest offerings have also grown in size. As others here have suggested, I suspect that the margins on larger boats must be highly attractive to management. I noticed that Sunseeker named its largest range "Superyacht," and it will be interesting to see if they continue to go even larger in the future.

You really do need to distinguish between the 50-80ft market and boats above this size. My personal view is that Sunseeker and Princess have an OK position and are reasonably well known in the 50-80ft / £3-8m market, but are not really taken seriously above this. There will always be some owners who upgrade into a larger boat and stay with the brand they are familiar with, but most will look to the greater brand recognition, higher quality (both actual and perceived) and increased customisation available from established Italian builders such as Sanlorenzo, Ferretti Group and others.

Regarding building brand recognition, it depends on what market you are considering. Attendance with big stands at shows like Southampton, Dusseldorf, Cannes, etc. and pushing products in boating magazines and on YouTube raises your profile with the mass-market of the boat buying community (itself a fairly exclusive club), but few UHNWs attend these events. They don't read the magazine reviews or have the time or inclination to watch YouTube videos from boating journalists.

Achieving brand recognition is a complex mixture of heritage, reputation, product design, product placement and targeted marketing, often developed and maintained over many decades. Ferretti group excels at this with a portfolio of heritage brands, aggressively promoted at events like its 4-day private show at the Monaco Yacht Club ahead of the Cannes show, with more or less the full range on display in the water. The invitation-only end of show party hosted by the yacht club usually has a long list of celebrity guests brushing shoulders with existing and potential owners and performances from artists like Elton John and last year Robbie Williams. Throughout the summer season, there are collaborations and joint marketing events with Ferrari at F1 races and many other owner events organised around high-profile sports and social occasions. Brands like Sanlorenzo have a more low-key but equally effective targeted strategy.

Of the British builders, Sunseeker is the one that has worked the hardest over the years to try to establish a position as a viable alternative to competing brands such as Riva and Pershing. They have a more dynamic image, more eye-catching/controversial designs (which you either love or hate), presence at the Monaco Yacht Show, owners events both on and off the water throughout the summer months in typical Med hotspots and some interesting collaborations with other premium brands. They're more open to owner customisation of the larger models and willing to work with the client's interior designers on furniture, fittings, etc. to create a more unique product. They've achieved some success, but are still not at the level of Riva, Sanlorenzo and others. In contrast to this, Princess and Fairline have always had a more mundane approach producing often very well made but fairly un-inspiring "me-too" designs, offering little or no customisation, and marketing in a fairly low-key manner, which may be why the recognition and respect for the brands in mainstream Med markets is lower.

Regarding the migration to larger and more complex boats, I'm sure that someone at some point produced a very compelling business case to show that more profit could be made producing one large 90-120ft boat rather than four or five 50-60ft boats in both Princess and Sunseeker. Sunseeker certainly moved aggressively in this direction around 2005 to 2010, not updating and all but dropping the smaller models from its range. They very quickly realised that without the pipeline of owners upgrading from the 50-80ft ranges it was difficult (or perhaps impossible) to sell the larger boats in any meaningful volumes. This resulted in a sharp u-turn in strategy and the launch of a plethora of new Manhattan and Predator models in the 50-75ft range between 2015 and 2020, with regular upgrades and recycling since then. This has then allowed them to fill out the 70-100ft "Yacht" range with a number of different models which seem to sell quite well. They still struggle for credibility and to sell anything bigger than this.

 

[jfm]

X95 has been remarkably successful.

Your definition of success is selling a lot of them. Mine is whether it created or burnt cash and shareholder value. VERY different things .

 

[jon and michie]

In my opinion - it all comes down affordability, and economy, yes the millionaire who has no money worries it doesn't affect in that term for a new purchase - Its the 2nd hand market that creates the knock on affect where the majority of boaters are and if the 2nd hand boats dont shift due to pricing as I have mentioned in one of my previous threads then the "Chain cannot progress".
and given that with the the economy and the governments policies then it will hit the boat builder hard.

 

[henryf]

Maybe the British brands should ditch Southampton, and Düsseldorf in favour of their own in water Monaco esque shows for a fraction of the cost of the big 2 shows. Not sure about Cannes as I feel it offers a window into Europe and targets the sub 90ft audience. Being in water it should be a lot cheaper to attend as well.

The May show at Swanwick has always been a highly concentrated collection of both boats and owners.

 

[jfm]

You really do need to distinguish between the 50-80ft market and boats above this size. My personal view is that Sunseeker and Princess have an OK position and are reasonably well known in the 50-80ft / £3-8m market, but are not really taken seriously above this. There will always be some owners who upgrade into a larger boat and stay with the brand they are familiar with, but most will look to the greater brand recognition, higher quality (both actual and perceived) and increased customisation available from established Italian builders such as Sanlorenzo, Ferretti Group and others.

Regarding building brand recognition, it depends on what market you are considering. Attendance with big stands at shows like Southampton, Dusseldorf, Cannes, etc. and pushing products in boating magazines and on YouTube raises your profile with the mass-market of the boat buying community (itself a fairly exclusive club), but few UHNWs attend these events. They don't read the magazine reviews or have the time or inclination to watch YouTube videos from boating journalists.

Achieving brand recognition is a complex mixture of heritage, reputation, product design, product placement and targeted marketing, often developed and maintained over many decades. Ferretti group excels at this with a portfolio of heritage brands, aggressively promoted at events like its 4-day private show at the Monaco Yacht Club ahead of the Cannes show, with more or less the full range on display in the water. The invitation-only end of show party hosted by the yacht club usually has a long list of celebrity guests brushing shoulders with existing and potential owners and performances from artists like Elton John and last year Robbie Williams. Throughout the summer season, there are collaborations and joint marketing events with Ferrari at F1 races and many other owner events organised around high-profile sports and social occasions. Brands like Sanlorenzo have a more low-key but equally effective targeted strategy.

Of the British builders, Sunseeker is the one that has worked the hardest over the years to try to establish a position as a viable alternative to competing brands such as Riva and Pershing. They have a more dynamic image, more eye-catching/controversial designs (which you either love or hate), presence at the Monaco Yacht Show, owners events both on and off the water throughout the summer months in typical Med hotspots and some interesting collaborations with other premium brands. They're more open to owner customisation of the larger models and willing to work with the client's interior designers on furniture, fittings, etc. to create a more unique product. They've achieved some success, but are still not at the level of Riva, Sanlorenzo and others. In contrast to this, Princess and Fairline have always had a more mundane approach producing often very well made but fairly un-inspiring "me-too" designs, offering little or no customisation, and marketing in a fairly low-key manner, which may be why the recognition and respect for the brands in mainstream Med markets is lower.

Regarding the migration to larger and more complex boats, I'm sure that someone at some point produced a very compelling business case to show that more profit could be made producing one large 90-120ft boat rather than four or five 50-60ft boats in both Princess and Sunseeker. Sunseeker certainly moved aggressively in this direction around 2005 to 2010, not updating and all but dropping the smaller models from its range. They very quickly realised that without the pipeline of owners upgrading from the 50-80ft ranges it was difficult (or perhaps impossible) to sell the larger boats in any meaningful volumes. This resulted in a sharp u-turn in strategy and the launch of a plethora of new Manhattan and Predator models in the 50-75ft range between 2015 and 2020, with regular upgrades and recycling since then. This has then allowed them to fill out the 70-100ft "Yacht" range with a number of different models which seem to sell quite well. They still struggle for credibility and to sell anything bigger than this.

100% agree. So Sunseeker and Princess need only do 2 things to flourish: concentrate on <80 feet and stop messing around above that (Princess in particular), and radically change their production (a MASSIVE project) including losing people who don't do much (maybe that's 3 things).
This will only be possible with entirely new management teams imho.

 

[henryf]

Your definition of success is selling a lot of them. Mine is whether it created or burnt cash and shareholder value. VERY different things .

Blimey John, does everything have to come down to profit

You are a very hard taskmaster. On the one hand I’d dread being part of one of your business interests but on the other I can see I’d be buying bigger boats

 

[jfm]

Well, yes it does. Except where someone chooses to consume their own money operating a non profitable/cash consuming business, which they are of course free to do.

But in my book its not ok to call something "successful" when what actually happens is that some managers launch a product using money belonging to a bunch of pension funds (for they are ultimate shareholders in the company), and therefore money belonging to a bunch of pensioners, perhaps 1-2 million such pensioners, and lose a bunch of those pensioners' money in the process by selling each widget at less than it cost to build. That just isn't "success" in my book and if that makes me a hard taskmaster (I don't think it does) then so be it. And I think it's ok to call this out.

I'm really curious that you asked the question though henryf. What do you think it comes down to? Is it ok to make luxury boats and sell them for 90% of what it cost to make them, year after year? Why? Is it somehow "good for the world" to do that? What element of it deserves to be called success?

 

[DAW]

Maybe the British brands should ditch Southampton, and Düsseldorf in favour of their own in water Monaco esque shows for a fraction of the cost of the big 2 shows. Not sure about Cannes as I feel it offers a window into Europe and targets the sub 90ft audience. Being in water it should be a lot cheaper to attend as well.

The May show at Swanwick has always been a highly concentrated collection of both boats and owners.

I don't know about Princess, but Sunseeker already run their own mini versions of the Ferretti event in several locations throughout the Med. For example, in Port Canto in Cannes in August they have a "Summer Nights" party with five or six boats up to 90ft on display, collaborations with Aston Martin and/or McLaren, cocktail party with food, DJ or live entertainment. It's usually a lot of fun and very well attended.

My view is you need to see the large boat shows as only part of a brand building programme, not the main element, and certainly not the main mechanism to sell boats, or show them to real prospective customers. I can't imagine a genuine UHNW buyer (someone with more than USD 30m of liquid, investable assets) being willing to trek to Dusseldorf or Southampton and stand in line at a boat show, even as a VIP ... and even if they do, they will not be happy to be shown around a boat packed with lots of other people opening cupboards and looking in the bathrooms.

Perhaps Sunseeker and Princess should attend Southampton in a meaningful way because it's their home show ... the Italian builders always have a significant presence in Genoa, even though its just after the Cannes show and only 200km away. Everyone is at Dusseldorf, so it's hard not to be there.

We have to recognise that success for Sunseeker and Princess will be driven by meeting the demands and expectations of the international and Med-based markets, and not those of buyers purchasing for use in the UK. I suspect they sell only a relatively small proportion of their current output in the UK, and if you exclude the smaller models in the 50-60ft range, I suspect the number of UK deliveries is almost nil. The rising price of boats in the 50-80ft range has also pushed them into a different market full of cash rich and time poor buyers, many of whom have little interest in the mechanical and practical considerations that are so important to most of us.

 

[DAW]

100% agree. So Sunseeker and Princess need only do 2 things to flourish: concentrate on <80 feet and stop messing around above that (Princess in particular), and radically change their production (a MASSIVE project) including losing people who don't do much (maybe that's 3 things).
This will only be possible with entirely new management teams imho.

I'm inclined to agree with your last comment. It was a little disappointing to see the announcements made by the management teams of both businesses around the time of their recent changes of ownership, reaffirming current business strategies and emphasising the intention to further extend model ranges and migrate to production of ever larger boats. This strategy hasn't delivered sustainable profitability in either business and has destroyed considerable shareholder value over a period of more than ten years. The solution seems obvious, if not exactly straightforward to implement. Let's hope the new owners realise before it's too late.

 

[TK Blue MAX]

Does anyone think that one of the reasons British builders aren't profitable may be down to the R+D that goes into a seemingly endless conveyor of new models. Looking at Aquaholics video of Princess, having to work your way through the hand built interior on every new model must be so time consuming and waste of resources. Years ago Princess seemed to give models a 10 year plus lifespan, 40/42 flybridge or V39/V40/V42 , all great boats, but minimal slight upgrades/ facelifts must be a hell of a lot cheaper than starting from scratch like seems to be the norm recently. Fairline and sunseeker are also guilty of this, but this must have a massive impact on profit. Its ok to give people choice of the latest and greatest new model, but not at the cost of loosing money, as this is only going to end one way.
As others have said, what's the point of a full order book if you are losing money on every one sold. The Princess factory wont be here in the future if something doesn't change soon, and the 3000 + who are employed will go the same way as the British motor industry, British Leyland , the company who thought investment in new technology was a for others.