BOATBUILDER Alnmaritec is opening a second North East yard as it looks to secure work in the fast-growing renewables sector.
The Alnwick company has established a base in Blyth, which will be twice the size of its existing facility when finished, and has secured additional equity funding to support its growth.
Alnmaritec designs and fabricates aluminium boats for a wide range of markets, including tugs and line-handling boats for the oil and gas industry, fast ferries, emergency rescue craft and fish and wind farm support vessels.
Established in the early 1970s, the company was bought by current managing director and naval architect Chris Millman in 2006, with the help of an investment from Newcastle- based Evolve Finance.
Since then, staff numbers have tripled from 26 to 78 employees and annual revenues have risen from £1.5m to £3m, as the company has expanded its worldwide customer base.
As part of Alnmaritec’s plans for future growth it is opening a new waterfront boatbuilding facility at the Port of Blyth, next to the New & Renewable Energy Centre.
The new facility could eventually be twice as large as Alnmaritec’s existing 3,000sq m space at Alnwick, and will provide the space required for the company to design and build larger vessels.
Mr Millman said: “The growth of our workforce is an indication of the success we’ve enjoyed since acquiring the company, but while we remain fully committed to our Alnwick base, its physical size has always constrained us to a degree in the size and specification of the boats we could build there.
“The new Blyth facility removes this constraint, and also puts us in the perfect place, both physically and commercially, to capitalise on the growing demands of customers in the region’s offshore wind farm sector.”
Simon Johnson, senior investment executive at Evolve Finance, the debt and mezzanine finance division of fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, said: “Alnmaritec has combined design excellence and manufacturing expertise to build a reputation as a world leader in their field, and have proven to be a very strong addition to our investee portfolio.”
