We are delighted that the government has responded to the situation at Princess and considered our challenging position as one of the approximately 5,000 ‘squeezed middle companies”, who had initially felt stranded by the government during the earlier support package offerings which did not apply to mid-sized companies with a turnover of more than £45m but were not big enough to avail the investment grade deal. The new scheme announced now provides larger firms such as Princess, with a turnover of up to £500m to be eligible for more help with state backed loans.
Princess Yachts are hugely appreciative to the government for taking notice and making this positive change. W e are also deeply appreciative of the coordinated efforts of all of the people that we have been in daily contact with regarding this change to the loan scheme, including; Plymouth City Council, the team at the CBI, the Department of International Trade, the Department for Business Enterprise and Industrial Strategy, our local MPs – Luke Pollard, Johnny Mercer & Sir Gary Streeter and Nusrat Ghani, MP; British Marine; Malindi Myers at the Bank of England & of course the Chancellor for hearing us and responding with these necessary changes in record time.
We are delighted that the government has recognised Princess Yachts as a world leading luxury British brand and exporter. W e currently are recognised as the leading luxury yacht brand in our sector in over 103 countries across the world. W e are also hailed as one of the greatest self-sufficient and vertically complex manufacturing stories left in the United Kingdom. W e have an 18-month order book and are on the verge of significant growth. This new government backed support will now help Princess Yachts to maintain this global footprint position and continue to give us confidence in respect of the 4,300+ jobs dependant on Princess in the South West of England – predominantly around the city of Plymouth and the 13,500 jobs across the United Kingdom dependa nt on Princess.
Antony Sheriff, Chief Executive of Princess Yachts, says “ We applaud the efforts made by the Chancellor & the government to date and we are thankful that our concerns were taken seriously & listened to. We also have huge appreciation for our supporters, especially the Plymouth City Council, Members of Parliament, the CBI, and others. We look forward to continued collaboration with these important organisations and government bodies in the future”.
Please note, Antony Sheriff, Executive Chairman, is avail able for TV, radio or press interviews to give comment in response to the Chancellor’s announcement.
