Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited

Company type	State owned
Industry	Shipbuilding
Founded	1903
Headquarters	Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland
Key people	Andrew Miller, Chair Graeme Thomson (CEO)
Products	Shipbuilding, ship repair and manufacturing
Owner	Scottish Government
Number of employees	Over 400
Parent	Lithgows (1961–1970) Scott Lithgow (1970–1977) British Shipbuilders (1977–1989)Clyde Blowers Capital (2014–2019)
Website	Ferguson Marine

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited is ashipbuilding company whoseyard, located inPort Glasgow on theFirth of Clyde in Scotland, was established in 1903. It is the last remaining shipbuilder on thelower Clyde and is currently the only builder ofmerchant ships on the river.

For some years the company's mainstay has beenRoll-on/roll-off ferries, primarily forCaledonian MacBrayne (CalMac), including a series of hybrid diesel-electric/battery-powered vessels. Beset with difficulties since 2018 over their latest two CalMac ferries, Fergusons' largest ever vessel, the shipyard was nationalised in December 2019. It is now classified as anexecutive non-departmental public body of theScottish Government.^[1]

The Ferguson shipyard was founded as a partnership by four brothers, (Peter, Daniel, Louis and Robert) who left theFleming & Ferguson shipyard inPaisley to lease the Newark yard inPort Glasgow in March 1903.^[2][3] The first vessel built by Messrs.Ferguson Brothers in the yard was the tugFlying Swift, launched on 26 October 1903.^[4][5] Ferguson Brothers acquired the freehold in the yard in 1907 and was incorporated asFerguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Ltd in 1912.^[3] The company was purchased by John Slater Ltd (Amalgamated Industries) in 1918^[3] but returned to control of the Ferguson family in the late 1920s.Lithgows Ltd purchased an interest in the business after Bobby Ferguson's death in 1954^[2] and took control of the Company in 1961.^[3] Ferguson Brothers remained a separate entity within theScott Lithgow group from 1969 to 1977.^[2]

The company was nationalised and subsumed intoBritish Shipbuilders in 1977,^[3] then merged with theAilsa Shipbuilding Company to formFerguson-Ailsa Ltd in 1980.^[2]

Ferguson and Ailsa were separated in 1986 when the latter yard was sold and Ferguson was merged withAppledore Shipbuilders inDevon to formAppledore Ferguson Shipbuilders Ltd.^[3] By the late 1980s only the Appledore Ferguson yards were still held in state ownership.^[6] Ferguson was demerged from Appledore and acquired byGreenock-based engineering firmClark Kincaid in 1989 then started trading asFerguson Shipbuilders.^[2][3]

Clark Kincaid itself was acquired byKvaerner and became Kvaerner Kincaid in 1990,^[7] and the Ferguson yard sold toFerguson Marine plc in 1991.^[3] The entire shareholding in Ferguson Marine was acquired by the Holland House Electrical Group in 1995.^[8] The sign above the main gate continued the nameFerguson Shipbuilders Limited.^[9] After they encountered difficulty in maintaining a flow of work, aScottish Executive cabinet meeting on 1 June 2005 discussed news that orders for fishery protection vessels and a CalMac ferry had been won by theRemontowa shipyard inGdańsk. The environment and rural affairs ministerRoss Finnie said "If the contracts were awarded to the Rementowa (Polish) yard, there were no other orders in prospect for the Clydeside shipyard and since the launch of its last ship a month previously, the yard had declined to a state that was close to irreversible." The cabinet noted "with concern the outlook for the Ferguson shipyard". In August 2005 Fergusons laid off 100 members of staff, and this was discussed by Finnie at a cabinet meeting. The minutes of the meeting record that "It was difficult to explain to Scottish taxpayers why public funds were being used to buy a vessel from Poland and make redundancy payments to shipbuilders in Port Glasgow."^[10]

Between 2013 and 2016 the yard built three hybrid diesel-electric/battery powered ferries, beginning withHallaig - the world's first.^[11]

In August 2014, the shipyard placed the company into administration and the following monthClyde Blowers Capital, an industrial company owned byJim McColl, purchased the yard for £600,000 and renamed itFerguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL).^[9]

In August 2015, government-ownedCaledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) announced that an order for two ferries forCaledonian MacBrayne service, capable of operating on either marine diesel oil orliquefied natural gas,had been won by Fergusons.^[12] Originally intended for delivery during 2018, construction difficulties (the reasons for which are in dispute) led to a two-year delay for the first ship,Glen Sannox, which was launched in November 2017.^[13][14]

FMEL was part of two consortia's bids for the programme for fivetype 31 frigates for theRoyal Navy, worth some £1.25 billion. The consortia are those led byBabcock International andAtlas Elektronik UK.^[15] After their bid was selected, a contract was formally awarded to Babcock Group on 15 November 2019, for an average production cost of £250 million per ship and an overall programme cost set to be £2 billion.^[16]

On 30 October 2018, FMEL secured a contract to construct a largeair cushioned barge for Mangistau ACV Solutions Ltd, part of the CMI Offshore Ltd Group, with estimated completion scheduled in 2019.^[17] In December 2018 FMEL announced that two orders worth £5.4 million had been secured from Inverlussa Marine Services for fish farm support vessels, to be completed in May 2019, and that three more for fishing vessels, totaling £11 million, were in the pipeline.^[18][19] Cutting first steel on the Inverlusa order began in early 2019,^[20] but by July 2019 the ferry dispute had led to delays in closing the trawler contracts.^[21]

Attempts by Clyde Blowers Capital to negotiate with the Scottish Government over increased costs and delays to ferries failed, and on 9 August 2019 the directors of FMEL gave notice that the company would be put into administration.^[14] This led to a bitter dispute between the Scottish Government and the former owners of the shipyard.^[22] On 16 August Finance Secretary Derek Mackay visited the yard to announce that the Scottish Government would take over management of Ferguson Marine to allow work to continue on current orders, and that if no private buyer could be found in four weeks, the yard would be nationalised by purchase.^[23][24] The government appointed marine engineer Tim Hair as turnaround director.^[24][25] At the start of December, after three private bids to purchase the yard were rejected as being insufficiently favourable to creditors, the government formally took ownership of the shipyard, and in the process wrote off about £50 million of previous loans.^[26]

The commercial transaction nationalising the shipyard was completed on 2 December 2019, making it a new business namedFerguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd..^[26][27]

The costs and viability of completing contracts was investigated, and on 22 January 2020 turnaround director Tim Hair told a Scottish Parliament inquiry that the large ferriesMV Glen Sannox andHull 802 were "significantly less than half built", with 95% of their design still to be agreed with the client bodyCaledonian Maritime Assets. Additional naval architects and marine engineers had been engaged to complete this design work.^[28]

The vessels for Inverlussa Marine Services were built in the large prefabrication shed. The 21-metre fish farm workboat was namedHelen Rice in a launch ceremony on 27 January 2020 attended by Scotland's finance and economy secretary Derek Mackay, then lifted by crane into the water on 29 January.^[29][30] Sea trials and delivery were completed in March.^[20] That month, Ferguson Marine announced that they had taken a four year lease on a large warehouse sited at Greenock waterfront, and would use it to consolidate stock and materials which had been stored in several warehouses nearGlasgow Airport.^[31] The largeair cushioned barge for CMI Offshore Ltd (ordered from FMEL in 2018) was launched on 24 June 2020, to be taken to theCaspian Sea to be completed and outfitted for oil exploration work in that area.^[32]

The company'sboard of directors with six non–executive members, including Alistair Mackenzie as chairman, was appointed in June 2020 by the Scottish GovernmentCabinet SecretaryFiona Hyslop.^[33]

In February 2021, the firm announced it would take on 120 additional workers with the intention of operating seven days per week.^[34] On 15 March the 26-metre fish treatment workboat for Inverlussa wasairbag launched, and namedKallista Helen.^[35]

The bulbous bow of Hull 802 was fitted in September 2021, and reported as a landmark in significant progress to both ships, deliveries of which by January 2022 were running up to five years late.^[36][37]

Fergusons had bid for two new ferries to be ordered byCMAL, but was not included on the shortlist to submit detailed tenders.^[38] On 16 December David Tydeman was appointed chief executive, to take over from Tim Hair in February 2022.^[39]

On 16 March 2023, Tydeman wrote to Scottish Ministers requesting a reset of the timetable for delivery of the two ferries to no later than end 2023 forGlen Sannox (Hull 801) and no later than end 2024 for Hull 802. The shipyard is aiming to delivering earlier –Glen Sannox in autumn 2023 and Hull 802 before late summer 2024.^[40]

In May 2023, Ferguson announced that it had secured an initial contract with BAE Systems to fabricate three steel units for HMSBelfast, the third City Class Type 26 frigate currently being constructed by BAE Systems.^[41]

Ferry fiasco - for the Scottish political controversy around the construction of theGlen Sannox andGlen Rosa.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toFerguson Marine.

• Official website

• Shipbuilding companies of Scotland
• Companies based in Inverclyde
• River Clyde
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• 1903 establishments in Scotland
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• Re-established companies
• Manufacturing companies established in 1986
• 1986 establishments in Scotland
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• British companies established in 1986
• British Shipbuilders
• Executive non-departmental public bodies of the Scottish Government

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