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Gosport closure planned 'from the beginning'
01 Oct 2005
"There are a lot of rumours, " he said, "but this was planned, to be honest, from the beginning. We want to bring the yard, the name, the brand and the company back to the direction of building new boats, not concentrating on refitting and repairing of MoD boats, which we consider are not the strategic kind of activities we are supposed to perform."
By the end of this month, Anichini said, the workforce will be down to "less than 10".
These will work on project management and engineering, while the rest of the workforce will be made redundant.
"The yard is under valuation and we have several options, " he told us. "Whether it's rented or sold - just the area we don't need - I don't know."
He also confirmed production of the Endeavour 42 was moving from Gosport to Finland.
The change of strategy away from refit work was emphasised when the owners of the Dunkirk evacuation boat, The Bounty , offered Campers £200,000 to continue restoring the 69-yearold ship. But Campers' bosses turned the work away, instead forking out £50,000 to have the boat towed to Lymington, just to get it out of the yard.
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