Princess Yachts made an operating loss of £19m during 2019.
The figures, released in the boatbuilder’s accounts, show a turnover of £317.3m during 2019, compared to £346.3m in 2018; £19m loss before exceptional costs (2018: £25.4m profit), a gross margin of 1.5% loss and operating profit margin of 6% loss.
The boatbuilder’s business review states 2019 was a year of consolidation in preparation for a stage of sustained growth.
Attention was focused on transforming build systems and quality processes, investments that had a larger impact than expected on the financial performance of the business.
During 2019, four new products were launched – the V55, S62, S66 and Y78 – with £13.7m spent on product development.
New X Class
The company’s South Yard site produced the last M Class boats and production of the new X95 began.
Net assets totalled £90.1m, a decrease of £13.4m on 2018, partly caused by pension scheme liabilities.
In May 2019, Princess concluded a multi-year working capital facility of up to £40m.
Despite a strong start to 2020, the impact of the pandemic meant a working capital cash advance of £12m was needed – provided by shareholders and bankers with scheduled repayments due up to December 2021.
The directors say they believe this finance will be sufficient to continue to operate – subject to the potential impact of further Covid restrictions.
No dividends were paid during 2019.
Content extracted from https://www.boatingbusiness.com/news101/boatbuilding/boatbuilding/19m-operating-loss