A&P sets target for Laird's.
Byline: Barry Turnbull Chief Business ReporterSHIP repair business is expected to return to the Cammell Laird yards within a year, it was claimed last night.
New owners A&P told Euro MP Chris Davies that they would have failed in their objectives if work was not underway in the next 12 months.
It was also stated that the assets would not be sold for property development even if shipyard business did not materialise.
Mr Davies received the assurances at a meeting with Brian Slade, a non-executive director of the Southampton company.
He reports that the director said: "Give us three to six months to properly assess the Birkenhead yard and fully identify its potential. I personally would be disappointed not to see activity at the yard within nine to twelve months."
And he assured Mr Davies that A&P was committed to developing ship-repairing and marine services, and that they had no plans to sell the site for property development.
Mr Slade, a non-executive director who is the longestserving member of the A&P board, told the MEP that he believed it would take only a relatively modest increase in the overall size of the company's business to enable work to be brought back to Birkenhead, and that the company's marketing team was working flat-out to secure it.
But he emphasised that the company had to gain the confidence of potential customers.
It's biggest challenge was to win new work in the face of European and global competition, he said.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Title Annotation: | Business |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
| Date: | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Words: | 251 |
| Previous Article: | ING backing Marconi. |
| Next Article: | Scheme to find more advisers. |