Latest news with #Navantia
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Family sells 'respected' Scottish bus firm after 70 years
McGill's Group said the acquisition of Prentice Westwood, which also operates bus routes, is part of its continued expansion in the coach travel sector. Businessmen James and Sandy Easdale. (Image: McGill's) The firm said that the "seven-figure deal will see the respected West Lothian-based business join the portfolio of McGill's Group" companies owned by former Rangers directors, Sandy and James Easdale. Tony Williamson, chief executive of McGill's Group, said: "We believe Prentice Westwood will play a significant role in supporting our continued growth across coach travel in central Scotland and beyond, and we look forward to welcoming our new colleagues into the business." Read the full story here Methil yard chief reveals renewables jobs hope There is hope for a positive future. (Image: Navantia) The head of Navantia's fabrication yard at Methil in Fife has revealed hopes of at least doubling the workforce from less than 180 to between 350 and 400 within the next two or three years. Matt Smith also highlighted a possibility that the headcount could rise as high as 600, depending on the work that comes into the yard. Mr Smith, who has been at the Methil yard for 12-and-a-half years under various owners, highlighted 'ups and downs' over this period and described the current trajectory as 'probably the most significant up we have been on with the acquisition by Navantia this year'. He flagged the boost to the local economy when the Methil yard was busy, as well as underlining the scale of the opportunities in the renewables sector and the site's capacity to undertake defence work. Read Ian McConnell' exclusive interview here Fanny By Gaslight sets re-opening date The well-known pub is to open again. (Image: Google) One of the oldest pubs in Kilmarnock is set to re-open a year after mysteriously closing down. Fanny By Gaslight on West George Street in the East Ayrshire town has been a public house since 1846, previously going by names including Railway Tavern, The Saddle Bar and Fifty Waistcoats. The Victorian pub was known for its traditional feel and Friday night rock gigs, but closed suddenly in June of 2024. It was put on the market by Iona Pub Partnership and new tenants have been found, with Fanny By Gaslight to re-open later this month. Read Gabriel McKay's exclusive story here AROUND THE GREENS ⛳ 'That's plenty': The revival of golf at Eastwood Twelve The course opened for play last month. (Image: Eastwood Twelve) This article appears as part of Kristy Dorsey's Around the Greens series Play has resumed at Eastwood on the south side of Glasgow with a new 12-hole format that owners of the course say is proving popular among golfers who are short on time.
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Can Methil yard create hundreds of jobs from offshore wind boom?
Much has changed over the decades for the fabrication yards, with a lot of the focus in recent times having been on renewables. And it has been difficult to shake the feeling that the renewables boom has not generated as much as might have been expected for Scotland in contracts and jobs. After arranging an interview with two senior executives responsible for the fabrication yard at Methil in Fife, following its change of ownership, it was difficult to know quite what to expect. Spanish group Navantia, which deserves credit for reassuring messages and actions particularly around job security after taking over the Methil site and the fabrication yard at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis in January following the collapse of Harland & Wolff, had not said that much about its future plans. Chatting to the general manager of the Methil yard, Matt Smith, and to Abel Mendez Diaz, commercial director of Navantia Seanergies, what offered much encouragement was the detail of the strategy, the scale of the ambition and the positive tone about what could be achieved. It is important to have all of this as the yard looks to the future. Mr Smith views the Methil site as being on 'probably the most significant up' in his 12 and a half years at the yard. He said: 'I've stayed with this yard through all sorts of troubles and I'm staying with it now because of the fact that I can see the potential for the success of the yard becoming what it used to be and what it should be again.' Mr Smith sees potential to increase the headcount at Methil very significantly indeed. He revealed hopes of at least doubling the workforce from less than 180 to between 350 and 400 within the next two or three years. And he highlighted a possibility the headcount could rise as high as 600, depending on the work that comes into the yard. A workforce of 350 to 400 would represent a very major boost to the local economy and a headcount of 600 would obviously be an even greater fillip. Asked about the importance of the type of employment provided by the Methil yard to the Fife town and the surrounding area, Mr Smith replied: 'It is significant. The workforce we have at the minute is all local. We are increasing using local resource. We are building to a point where we need to look slightly further afield but that is across the central belt of Scotland and down into maybe other key industrial areas of the UK. But within the local economy, when this yard's busy it's very, very good, it's a sort of buoyant time for the community. 'Although I am saying local, we have a number of people who travel from different areas in Scotland and that means that there's money going into accommodation, there's money going into just all the usual things that we would expect people to be spending their expendable income on. It makes a significant difference to the local economy when we're busy.' Read more There has been a great deal of debate, for very good reason, about whether Scotland is winning an appropriate share of the investment and employment being generated by the renewable energy boom. Noting that he and Mr Mendez Diaz used to work as competitors, albeit while looking at opportunities to collaborate, Mr Smith said: 'The reality is Navantia were the market leaders. And therefore for us to be in a situation where we are now part of that - part of a market-leading company that has global ambition - that's game-changing for the yard.' Mr Smith expressed his confidence that the Methil and Arnish yards can play a key part in Scotland reaping the benefits of the enormous amount of offshore wind energy development that is coming. He said: 'I think that within Scotland there are probably two or three key companies, key facilities, that will be used to support ScotWind and the various other programmes. We always speak to each other. We are not looking at how we can beat each other, we are actually looking at how we collaborate, we are looking at how we can put forward a Scotland plc, a UK plc in order to make sure that the UK economy and what is left of the UK fabrication industry actually benefits from this because all of this work is right on our doorstep. 'There is potentially…I would hazard a guess, when you look at the amount of work that is out there, I would say 20 years-plus worth of work that is sitting out there, and I think that will continue to grow. Read more 'I really genuinely see Scotland playing a big part in this. It has to. The reality is it has to.' Mr Smith was upbeat about the outlook for the Arnish yard, as he highlighted the scale of the employment it provides. He said: 'So Arnish is working very, very positively at the minute within the energy industry, and [on] some small components for nuclear work…I think numbers-wise they are up to about I would say approximately 170 at the minute…the large majority of that will be workforce. 'Again, really, really busy time for the yard. They have got a good pipeline well into next year and hopefully beyond. The general manager up there, Albert Allan, is working very, very hard to secure future opportunities.' Mr Smith also flagged the benefits to Arnish of the Stornoway deep water terminal. He said: 'They are getting things like for instance the Stornoway deep water port, and the work that they're doing with Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the port authority is going to bring new opportunity to Arnish. They now have the opportunity to expand the yard a bit and to potentially be doing bigger components for projects. They are also part of our renewables ambition. They have niche rolling equipment. For specialist projects, Arnish is very well equipped.' Again, that combination of detail and positivity. This positive attitude also came across clearly from Mr Mendez Diaz. He said: 'I have always been aware of the capacities of Methil because, as we said, we were competitors in the past. We lost projects against Methil. Beatrice [wind farm] is one of them that comes to my mind. I was very happy to be able to offer the capacities of Methil now under the Navantia portfolio. 'When I visited the place, I was surprised in a way because I didn't know about the capacities regarding substations for example. I only knew about the developments made in the recent years in jacket foundations, but I realised that the yard was capable of much more.' Mr Mendez Diaz did highlight fierce competition from manufacturers in Asia but sees room for optimism, flagging the importance of the UK Government's clean industry bonus (CIB), while emphasising it remains to be seen how this works in practice. He said: 'That promotes the use of local industry so this is to incentivise local content. It is true that the competition is hungry. Every now and then we see a new competitor coming from Asia and we cannot compete in price with that so we are competing with quality, with strength of delivery. To me, the CIB is the mechanism by which we can compete.' He added: 'We need to see how effective it is in reality.' It remains to be seen what the next chapter holds for the Methil and Arnish yards. However, the arrival of Navantia as owner and the plans and positivity about the future suggest there are grounds on this occasion for genuine optimism.
The Herald Scotland
7 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Navantia's Methil yard boss reveals renewables jobs hope
Mr Smith, who has been at the Methil yard for 12-and-a-half years under various owners, highlighted 'ups and downs' over this period and described the current trajectory as 'probably the most significant up we have been on with the acquisition by Navantia this year'. He flagged the boost to the local economy when the Methil yard was busy, as well as underlining the scale of the opportunities in the renewables sector and the site's capacity to undertake defence work. Highlighting the scale of planned renewables development and his belief that there is '20 years-plus worth of work that is sitting out there' with potential for this to grow, he declared: 'I really genuinely see Scotland playing a big part in this. It has to. The reality is it has to.' Spanish state-owned group Navantia bought the Methil operation and a fabrication yard at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis in January, following Harland & Wolff's fall into administration. The acquisition also included the Harland & Wolff yards in Belfast and at Appledore in Devon. Navantia has highlighted Methil's 'growing role in the fabrication of offshore wind components - including jackets, monopiles, substations and complex transition pieces'. Asked about the importance of the type of employment provided by the Methil yard to the Fife town and the surrounding area, Mr Smith replied: 'It is significant. The workforce we have at the minute is all local. We are increasing using local resource. We are building to a point where we need to look slightly further afield but that is across the central belt of Scotland and down into maybe other key industrial areas of the UK. But within the local economy, when this yard's busy it's very, very good, it's a sort of buoyant time for the community. 'And we have a number of, although I am saying local, we have a number of people who travel from different areas in Scotland and that means that there's money going into…accommodation, there's money going into just all the usual things that we would expect people to be spending their expandable income on. It makes a significant difference to…the local economy when we're busy.' Mr Smith flagged the work currently in the yard. This includes renewables work from Navantia's Seanergies business as well as preparatory works for the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) vessels defence contract. Navantia UK, set up in 2022, was awarded a Ministry of Defence contract to build three FSS vessels for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in January 2023. Mr Smith said: 'I have been in the yard 12-and-a-half years, so I have been through all the ups and downs and consider this to be probably the most significant up we have been on with the acquisition by Navantia in January of this year…For us to be in a situation where we are now part of…a market-leading company that has global ambition - that's game-changing for the yard.' He added: 'From the yard's perspective, we're now in a situation where we are moving from about 170 [to] 180 people up to in excess of 200. We've got work starting, some of which has come from Seanergies. We're working in partnership with our colleagues in Spain, some of which is…work which is coming as part of the FSS project - it's…preparatory works for the defence works. Read more 'So it's giving us work in the yard - proper work that we haven't had for a good few months unfortunately because of the period of unsettledness. We're increasing staff, we're increasing workforce, we're increasing our apprentice numbers. We've got 46 apprentices on the books at the minute just within this yard. Across the UK group, we've probably in excess of 200 apprentices at the minute. I've got 10 graduating in August. I'm taking on another 14. So that's going to give me 10 new graduates and 50 apprentices still working their way through the programme.' Mr Smith highlighted the potential for the headcount at the Methil yard to increase very significantly, possibly to as much as 600. He said: 'I would like to see us up to the 350 to 400 within the next two or three years and - it depends on the work that comes in - we could be targeting as much as 600. Our yards in Spain operate at times with I think…800 to 1000. So, when we have big projects on, that is the type of numbers that are potentially achievable.' Asked if the workforce, if it rose to 600, would be a mixture of full-time employed workers as a core and contractors who came in, he replied: 'Yes. At the minute, we are 100% core. As we build the company and build the core, you will exhaust the local resource levels so you do have to go slightly further afield and we work with key partners, key companies that will provide labour from elsewhere within the UK or Spain.' Mr Smith added: 'We are, with Navantia's support, going to be looking at setting up [a] training academy within the yard…something that the other yards are all looking to do as well, so that we can operate the apprenticeship programme effectively and obviously then offer upskilling to other people who may be looking for a change in career or looking for the opportunity to progress their careers etcetera.' He described it as a 'very, very exciting time'. Mr Smith said: 'It's great to be sitting here with work in the yard. It feels like the place is being re-energised. We have…improvements going on, investment into the maintenance and then larger investment will come with the strategy and pipeline as that develops.' He noted the Methil yard was working on components for wind turbine generator jacket foundations for the Dieppe Le Tréport offshore wind farm in France. Abel Mendez Diaz, commercial director of Navantia Seanergies, highlighted the fact it had moved work to the UK, given the capacity of the yard. Read more Mr Smith said: 'It is giving us really solid work through to the middle of next year, and we've got quite a strong pipeline beyond that, which is good.' He highlighted the scale of the ScotWind round of offshore wind projects, and other major renewables development across the UK. The ScotWind programme involves developers paying Crown Estate Scotland for use of the seabed, with CES passing profits to the Scottish Government for spending on services across the nation. Mr Smith said: 'Obviously the ScotWind round of projects is potentially enormous - the best part of 30 gigawatts of electricity, probably somewhere in the region of…round about 2,000 foundations required. 'Then there are three other major campaigns of renewable work across the UK, between INTOG, the Irish Sea and the Celtic [Sea] Cluster works.' Asked about the length of service of employees at the Methil and Arnish yards, Mr Smith said: 'In both facilities we have got a lot of people that are long term because they are from the local communities, so we now have in both yards probably people ranging from 17, 18 years old up to - there are one or two people who are still working and still want to work in their early 70s. 'We have an active workforce. I would say that there is probably [an] average age in the yards [of] maybe early to mid forties, maybe mid forties to late forties, just dependent on the numbers.' He declared that the yards 'take on as many female apprentices as we can because, again, we are starting to see more and more women that are interested in working in the industry'. Mr Smith added: 'I have got apprentice welders that are female, we have got apprentice electricians that are female, technical apprentices as well. We are looking at graduate schemes so that will continue to help with that. Historically, it has been a predominantly male-dominated industry but we are starting to see a change. 'We are starting to see many women deservedly in key management positions as well. We are really, really keen just to make sure that we get the best people and I think we are now getting ourselves into a position where we can become an employer of choice and that's very important. We are working with the local schools, working with the local colleges, we are now…within the UK also starting to look into trying to get involved in some of the universities that are doing engineering courses and things so that we start to focus on graduates. I think that is something that is already in place in Spain and there is involvement from universities in research and things like that.'
The Herald Scotland
7 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Methil fabrication yard boss reveals why he is staying
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, he said: 'I've stayed with this yard through all sorts of troubles and I'm staying with it now because of the fact that I can see the potential for the success of the yard becoming what it used to be and what it should be again.' He highlighted the scale of offshore wind development and the work being generated by this. Mr Smith said: 'I think that within Scotland there are probably two or three key companies, key facilities, that will be used to support ScotWind and the various other programmes. We always speak to each other. We are not looking at how we can beat each other, we are actually looking at how we collaborate, we are looking at how we can put forward a Scotland plc, a UK plc in order to make sure that the UK economy and what is left of the UK fabrication industry actually benefits from this because all of this work is right on our doorstep. Read more 'There is potentially…I would hazard a guess, when you look at the amount of work that is out there, I would say 20 years-plus worth of work that is sitting out there, and I think that will continue to grow. I really genuinely see Scotland playing a big part in this. It has to. The reality is it has to.' Mr Smith highlighted the scale of the investment being made in the yard by Navantia. Abel Mendez Diaz, commercial director of Navantia's Seanergies business, said of the Methil site: 'The yard at the moment as it currently stands is capable of executing any project we are now bidding for. Any additional investment will be to adapt the characteristics of the yard to the particulars of such a project, but this is very project-specific… 'There is a minimum that has to be met and, at the moment, Methil as it currently stands is perfectly fit to execute any project.' Asked how the Methil yard compared with his perception of it before it was acquired by Navantia, Mr Mendez Diaz replied: 'I have always been aware of the capacities of Methil because we were competitors in the past. We lost projects against Methil. I was very happy to be able to offer the capacities of Methil now under the Navantia portfolio.' He added: 'When I visited the place I was surprised in a way because I didn't know about the capacities regarding substations for example. I only knew about the developments made in the recent years in jacket foundations but I realised that the yard was capable of much more.'
Morocco World
10-06-2025
- Business
- Morocco World
Spain Allocates €113,000 for Halal Meals for Moroccan Military Trainees
The Spanish government has announced a budget of €113,000 (Approximately $129,000) to cover halal meal provisions for Moroccan military personnel currently undergoing training at the state-owned Navantia shipbuilding company. The funding is specifically allocated for catering during the training sessions held at the San Fernando shipyard, under an agreement with Morocco, ensuring all meat served is halal-certified and strictly excluding alcohol and pork products. According to the contract, meals must be nutritious and varied while fully complying with Islamic dietary laws, which means no pork or alcohol, and only halal-certified meats can be used. Navantia is set to train up to 86 Moroccan soldiers between February 2025 and June 2026, preparing them to operate a new naval vessel. S cheduled for delivery in mid-2026, this vessel in question is part of a significant modernization effort by the Royal Moroccan Navy, marking the first warship built by a Spanish shipyard for Morocco in nearly four decades. The ship features a flight deck capable of supporting a 10-ton helicopter or drones, along with a hangar for air operations, and is equipped with two 8-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boats for auxiliary missions. Construction of the vessel— 87 meters long, 13 meters wide, and supports a crew of 60 personnel – is expected to generate over one million work hours and create approximately 1,100 jobs over three and a half years.
