2018: the British manufacturer’s most successful year in its 54 year history

Plymouth, UK: Princess Yachts Ltd has today announced record financial results, plus new records for yacht sales and employment at its Plymouth headquarters. The results make 2018 the British manufacturer’s most successful year in its 54 year history.

Financial results for the 12 months to 31st December 2018 show record turnover of £340.3m (up £65.9m / 24% on 2017) and record operating profit before exceptionals of £29.8m (up £10.9m / 173%). EBITDA for 2018 was £32.8m up from £14.9m in 2017.
In 2018 Princess hit a record high for employment of 3,200. Recruitment has taken place across the business from engineering to exterior design, manufacturing to management, making Princess one of the UK’s largest specialist manufacturers. Princess also increased investment in its successful apprenticeship programme with 40 new apprentices brought into the business; apprentices now make up 4% of the workforce with a 100% retention rate following qualification.

Antony Sheriff, Executive Chairman, Princess Yachts, said: “I am really proud of what the Princess team has achieved in 2018. Their focus and dedication enabled Princess to build on the previous two years of solid financial figures and beat 2017’s record results. The team launched six stunning new luxury yachts while growing revenues to over one third of a billion pounds.

“These strong financial figures will enable us to build upon our unique, highly integrated infrastructure in Plymouth and invest even more in advanced technologies, new yachts and quality levels across design and production. We continue to forge ahead in our vision to be not just the highest quality, most innovative and successful luxury yacht manufacturer in the world, but also a great British employer.”

Underpinning the strong sales, production and recruitment numbers are orders worth in excess of £700m that stretch through 2020 on classic Princess yachts such as the S78, innovative yachts targeting new segments such as the R35, and the game-changing X95 ‘Superfly’ due to be officially launched at Düsseldorf in January 2020.