Yacht firm announces 300 job cuts

A total of 313 staff are to lose their jobs at Princess Yachts

More than 300 workers are to lose their jobs from Plymouth-based luxury motor boat builder Princess Yachts.

The company has told 257 staff they will be made redundant. A further 56 workers have been accepted for voluntary redundancy.

The cuts follow an announcement in March that up to 450 jobs were at risk.

At the time the boat builder said it had to make cuts to strengthen the company during the recession and create the right platform for future growth.

Hours reduced

The announcement follows the end of the compulsory 90-day consultation period between staff and unions.

Princess Yachts International started as Marine Projects in Newport Street, Plymouth, making 20ft (6m) day boats.

It now sells a range of 80 boats, topped by 95ft (28m) luxury cruisers, which cost in the region of £4.1m and after the job cuts, will employ about 1800 staff.

I am pleased to say we avoided a lot larger number of redundancies but unfortunately I do not think we were ever in a position where we could say we are having no redundancies

Dave Springbett, Unite

In January, the firm introduced a 10% reduction in its working week among its staff for three months in a bid to cut costs.

Dave Springbett, spokesman for Unite union, said: "Unfortunately I think the recession is in such a deep hold at the moment I don't really think there there is anything else that could have been done to avoid this number of redundancies.

"I am pleased to say we avoided a lot larger number of redundancies but unfortunately I do not think we were ever in a position where we could say we are having no redundancies."

Princess Yachts declined to comment on the redundancies.