What is going on with Sealine now?

[MY littlebirchwoo]

Looking through the trade press and IBI are reporting that Sealine have announced another 72 redundancies at Kidderminster - if the ones last year were not enough....

Extremely bad news for those concerned and my sympathy to those who will be included in this tranche.


Around 72 jobs are to go as UK yacht-builder cuts back in production and office-based staff

UK boatbuilder Sealine International announced on Friday that it is restructuring its workforce following a detailed review of the company’s production requirements for 2012.

Sealine says it will reduce its workforce in Kidderminster by around 72 employees, with cutbacks in production and office-based staffing levels.

The news follows the appointment of Bill Griffiths as the group’s new managing director last month.

“In order to keep our business strong and growing we need to keep our overheads in line with current demand and to take on board the impact that the global economic situation is having on the leisure marine market as a whole,” says Griffiths. “We have therefore taken the decision to cut our workforce in order to protect the long term prospects of the company.

“Our range of high quality luxury motor boats, from 35ft-60ft, will continue to be produced using our skilled team based at our factory in Kidderminster. We will also be continuing with our new model development programme to meet the requirements from our customers moving forward.”

The company says it is now entering a period of consultation with staff.

 

[halcyon]

Looking through the trade press and IBI are reporting that Sealine have announced another 72 redundancies at Kidderminster - if the ones last year were not enough....

I suspect it's sorting out the Brunswick years, there has been a lot more staff than there used to be. But I await this years order coverage with interest.

Brian

 

[rafiki_]

Sounds like they are balancing their forward order book with their capacity. Under the new owners (VC's), I am sure that Sealine will be extremely focussed on the bottom line, and shareholder value.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Just adjusting to the new reality that many industries have had to face following the credit crunch. In retrospect, I believe we will look back at the years 2000-2008 and recognise them for being a one-off economic bubble fuelled by an unsustainable wave of credit. For many industries, there is no going back to the turnover levels of those years and therefore a period of painful retrenchment is inevitable for survival

 

[mjf]

Yes I agree too much cheap money lent to high risk peeps in the hope that property values would increase and always cover the debt.

 

[Nautorius]

Yes I agree too much cheap money lent to high risk peeps in the hope that property values would increase and always cover the debt.

That is right...when we were all told "No more Boom or Bust". Sealine is doing what every company should be doing, re-evaluating labour and Capex requirements. It is still unfortunate for those skilled workpeople who will lose their jobs.

Not pleasant but with the current Macro Economic Climate the Survival of Sealine through Lean times is key as they provide some great boats....which we do not want to see disappear.

Paul

 

[[2068]]

They do seem to be managing the workforce in hire'n'fire mode these days, but I guess that's what they have to do to survive.

After they almost halved the workforce, there was some re-hiring. Now looks to be some shrinkage again.

 

[AdeOlly]

Can't help but wonder if orders have dropped since they dumped/were dumped by (delete as appropriate) Ancasta and reverted to one (??) Sealine owned showroom rather than be represented all over the place by Ancasta salesman eager to make a margin.....

 

[[2068]]

I don't think it helps when they keep alternating around Sales models (factory or dealer).

It will take a while for the new S.Coast showroom to be firing on all cylinders to see how succesful it really is.

 

[ari]

They seem to have gone full circle. Isn't one factory owned south coast dealer what they used to do?

 

[halcyon]

They seem to have gone full circle. Isn't one factory owned south coast dealer what they used to do?

There was Brixham as well as Swanwick on south coast, plus Windsor, with Sheppards and Burton Water as dealers, when Sealine did direct selling last.

One advantage was the trade ins were nice boats, as they went to the factory over winter for clean and refurb. It always looked odd seeing Failines, Princess and Sunseeker on the production line Kidderminster.

Brian

 

[DavidJ]

They seem to have gone full circle. Isn't one factory owned south coast dealer what they used to do?

Yes, we bought our S37 from the direct sales office on the Hamble in 2002. Direct access to the factory meant that initial problems were sorted quickly and without fuss.
I think they owned other sales offices as well.

 

[aviator]

Similar story to Fairline whose new owners and management must balance the books.

Pretty normal way to do business really..............