A&P Group
The Shipyard Group A & P Group with repair yards in Hebburn, Middlesbrough and Falmouth emerged from the traditional shipbuilding company Austin & Pickersgill, formerly yards in Southwick, Sunderland on the River Wear in North East England for operation.
History
The company was founded in 1954 through the merger of William Pickersgill shipyard in Southwick on Wear, with, also based in Sunderland shipyard SP Austin & Sons. The former shipyard Pickersgill, Southwick Yard, was modernized in the next four years for about three million pounds sterling, and then took over the construction of new ships. The operation Wear Dock Yard of SP Austin & Sons was used after the merger as a repair yard. In 1957, the majority stake in A & P by a consortium led by the shipping company London and Overseas Freighters in cooperation with the shipping company and ship insurance companies Lambert Brothers Ltd.. , As well as the London merchant bank Phillip Hill, Higginson was acquired, and the company in 1970 finally completely taken over. 1961, Austin & Pickersgill approximately 1,200 employees and in 1962 they began in the course of the conversion of shipbuilding on section construction, offer standard designs for ships series, initially for bulk carriers.
From the mid- 1960s, starting with the development of a Liberty ship replacement type. Great influence in this context, the Greek -born chairman of the shipping company London and Overseas Freighters, BM Mavroleon, which maintains good contacts with Greek shipping circles. The result was the famous SD14 type of ship which was manufactured here from 1967 and from other shipyards under license until 1988. 1968, also located on the Main Shipyard Bartram & Sons was acquired after they had previously worked together at SD14 freighter. In the same year they began again to modernize the shipyard Southwick yard.
On 1 July 1977, the A & P shipyard group was incorporated in 2900 with employees in the State British Shipbuilders Corporation. As almost the only British shipyard of these days they could produce SD -14 full order books thanks to its successful series type. Therefore, the workforce declined even not appreciably until 1980. In the first half of the 1980s will follow ship types for SD - 14 as the SD -18 constructed from the 1980/81 only three units can be sold but. In 1986 the merger of the yard and its now only 1800 employees was carried out with the products resulting from the shipyard William Doxford & Sons Sunderland Shipbuilders and their still remaining approximately 2,000 employees and the re-privatization under the name of North East Shipbuilders Ltd. ..
From 1988, there was, after long negotiations with the European Commission on the reduction of shipyard capacity, no further aid the British government. The ship was finally stopped and about 6,000 employees lost their jobs. There were accusations in this regard in the room that the closure of the shipyards in Sunderland would have been a prerequisite for the survival of the Govan shipyard in Glasgow.
Although Sunderland received a sum equivalent to £ 45 million in grants from the European Economic Community for restructuring and retraining of workers in the subsequent period, could not prevent a failure of the last A & P remnant, the engineering company Pallion Engineering. In addition to attracting companies to trade and commercial enterprise today is also the St Peter's Campus of the University of Sunderland on a former shipyard area.
The remaining company acquires Appledore Shipbuilders in 1989 and is then renamed to A & P Appledore International. A & P is concentrated in the follow- on ship repairs and conversions, will in 1995 again renamed A & P Group and eventually acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1997.
In 2001 A & P buys the traditional shipbuilders Cammell Laird, which shipyards in Birkenhead, Teesside and Tyneside operates. The shipyard in Birkenhead but delivered at Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders in 2005.
The company with more than 1,000 employees and about £ 50 million pounds of annual revenue is now run by CEO David Ring.
Today's shipyard sites
A & P Tyne
A & P Tyne in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, Great Britain lies on the River Tyne. The company, which also includes parts of the former shipyards Hawthorn, Leslie & Company and Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, has two dry docks, of which there are currently only one is used, two piers, Bede Quay and West Quay called, and a large steel construction hall. The site has eight cranes up to 100 tons lifting capacity, steel, pipe - and machine shops. The A & P Tyne dry dock is 259 meters long, 45.7 meters wide and has a depth of 5.6 meters below chart datum, the largest of the British east coast.
A & P Tees
A & P Tees in Middlesbrough, Great Britain lies on the River Tees. The yard has two dry docks with 175 and 120 meters in length, six cranes with lifting capacity up to 45 tons, as well as various workshops.
A & P Falmouth
A & P Falmouth in Falmouth ( Cornwall), United Kingdom went from Falmouth Shiprepairers Ltd.. produced and is the largest ship repair yard of the United Kingdom, and is located on the third largest natural deep water harbor in the world, at the mouth of the River Fal. A & P Falmouth has three large dry docks, where ships with up to a size of 100,000 DWT can be docked. The largest of these, the so-called Queen Elizabeth Dock is 252.8 meters long, 39.6 meters wide and is 5.6 meters below chart datum. Dock number 3 is 221 meters long, 28 meters wide and is 3.2 meters below chart datum. Dock number 4 is 172.5 meters long, about 26 meters wide and is 2.9 meters below chart datum. The four berths of the shipyard called County Wharf, Duchy Wharf, Queens Wharf and South of Queens Wharf. The site has six cranes up to 60 tons lifting capacity, steel, pipe, electrical, and machine shops.