Fairline in administration

[surveyor]

Something odd going on.

Less than 2 months after being sold to an investor back in administration,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j8m0xkrmwo

[Simpo Two]

Arrowboat - 'electric propulsion technology' - maybe they found out that if you fill a Fairline with batteries it won't plane?

https://www.arrowbolt.co.uk/

[NeilB12]

surveyor said:

Something odd going on.

Less than 2 months after being sold to an investor back in administration,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j8m0xkrmwo

Very odd!
The investor is the son of the man behind Wessex Bristol who sent them into administration last time, he had a Russian accomplice and coincidentally they were sold to a pair of Russian investors after entering administration.

The son is the only name involved now, think he's 23 and so far seems to be a chip off his fathers block. In December staff were informed of a huge pile of cash available which seems to have now disappeared, along with about 300 jobs between then and now.
Pre-pack springs to mind but the rumour mill is one of the main lenders twigged what was going on and put the company into administration.

Leaves a bad taste in the mouth but sadly all legal.

Arrowbolt have a website but no actual products and was only created a few weeks prior to the Fairline purchase.

[classicaholic]

Same director of Arrow bolt is also director of Fletcher boats who are insolvent by 1M on their accounts and web sites are down, maybe Mr Ahmed is trying to close all UK boat builders!

[Louis Balfour]

surveyor said:

Something odd going on.

Less than 2 months after being sold to an investor back in administration,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j8m0xkrmwo

Having done no research whatsoever one thing springs to mind: Did they buy it to close it, because it was cheaper than competing with it?

[LotusOmega375D]

I know nothing about boats but always had a soft spot for Fairline. I live not too far away and always thought of them as proper gin palaces. One thing I never understood though: why do they build ocean-going boats nigh on 100 miles from the nearest seaside marina? Presumably their designs have always been size-limited to whatever can be transported by a low loader on a single carriageway A road, with all its associated problems like bridges etc.

[NeilB12]

LotusOmega375D said:

I know nothing about boats but always had a soft spot for Fairline. I live not too far away and always thought of them as proper gin palaces. One thing I never understood though: why do they build ocean-going boats nigh on 100 miles from the nearest seaside marina? Presumably their designs have always been size-limited to whatever can be transported by a low loader on a single carriageway A road, with all its associated problems like bridges etc.

Started life as a marina and then small riverboats and just grew from there - https://fairline.com/our-story/
They have a commissioning and test centre at Ipswich

[Tony1963]

An old friend who returned from Saudi about the same time I did, end of ‘99, worked for them for a few years. Did time on the prototype team, made a good name for himself. Now in the UAE selling yachts, but I think he is looking at going alone with his own designs.

[bergclimber34]

Lotus I also live fairly close, and often wondered the same thing, seems odd!

[Boatbuoy]

The industry's least un-expected announcement. As a business it's been circling the drain for years.

I cut my teeth in the design office there, and over the course of a decade worked my way up the ladder, until in 2013, after 4 years of the on/off threat of redundancy I left for a competitor on the south coast. I have friends who are directly affected by the latest news, and it's those guys who I feel for. They've been through the mill over the years. Diligent, committed designers & engineers who put their soul into the products.

Big boat building is a lumpy cash flow model. You can have a strong order-book (as I under stand Fairline do/had), but staged payments mean there isn't always money. If there's no money, you can't buy parts. If you can't buy parts, you can't build boats. If you can't build boats you can't get paid, and then it all gets painful.

It's a real shame that there's people out there who seek (multiple times) to profiteer by putting innocent people into distress. It's all very sad.

I do worry for the UK motorboat builders. They continue to put out the traditional ranges of sports and flybridge models. They've not diversified enough. The Italian builders have left our builders behind. They've been bold, and it's paid off for them. All of the UK yards are in some form of financial constraint. Thankfully my current employer is in a very different position.

[Boatbuoy]

Tony1963 said:

An old friend who returned from Saudi about the same time I did, end of ‘99, worked for them for a few years. Did time on the prototype team, made a good name for himself. Now in the UAE selling yachts, but I think he is looking at going alone with his own designs.

Paul G?

[Simpo Two]

Boatbuoy said:

You can have a strong order-book (as I under stand Fairline do/had), but staged payments mean there isn't always money. If there's no money, you can't buy parts.

Isn't the point of staged payments to make sure there's always money?

Boatbuoy said:

I do worry for the UK motorboat builders. They continue to put out the traditional ranges of sports and flybridge models. They've not diversified enough. The Italian builders have left our builders behind. They've been bold, and it's paid off for them. All of the UK yards are in some form of financial constraint.

Reeves' budget will probably finish them off. Apparently it's called 'growth'.

[Boatbuoy]

Simpo Two said:

Boatbuoy said:

You can have a strong order-book (as I under stand Fairline do/had), but staged payments mean there isn't always money. If there's no money, you can't buy parts.

Isn't the point of staged payments to make sure there's always money?

It helps, but you still need a reserve.

[Tony1963]

Boatbuoy said:

Paul G?

Yes!