A&P Group
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| Type | Private Company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Hebburn, Tyne and Wear,  United Kingdom |
| Number of locations | 6 |
| Key people | David Skentelbery Group Managing Director (Chris Bell from Ist January 2010) |
| Industry | Maritime |
| Services | Ship repair and ship conversion |
| Revenue | ▲ £50 million GBP |
| Employees | up to 1000 |
| Website | www.ap-group.co.uk |
| Company was previously known as Austin & Pickersgill. | |
The A&P Group Ltd is the largest UK ship repair and conversion company with shipyards located around the UK in Hebburn, Middlesbrough and Falmouth. The Company undertakes a wide variety of maintenance and repair work on commercial and military ships with projects ranging from a two day alongside repair period through to multimillion UK pound conversion projects lasting for a year or more.
As one of only two remaining significant commercial ship repair companies in the United Kingdom, A&P Group has become a centre of excellence for ship owners and managers operating in North West Europe and continues to grow a profitable and successful business employing over 1,000 skilled staff in the North East and South West of England.
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[edit] History
[edit] Corporate history
The A&P Group was originally formed in Sunderland as Austin & Pickersgill in 1954 by the merger of S P Austin & Son Ltd (founded c. 1826) and W Pickersgill & Sons Ltd (founded c. 1838).[1] After the merger Austin's Wear Dock yard was used for repair while shipbuilding was concentrated at Pickersgill's Southwick Yard. The latter was modernised with the introduction of large assembly shops and prefabrication processes.[1] This reduced costs and increased the maximum size of a vessel that the yard could build from 10,000 to 40,000 tons deadweight.
In 1957 a consortium of three companies led by London and Overseas Freighters (LOF) took over Austin & Pickersgill.[2] In October 1968 Austin & Pickersgill took over Bartram & Sons Ltd, whose South Dock yard was also in Sunderland.[1] In 1970 London and Overseas Freighters bought out the other members of the consortium to take 100% ownership of Austin & Pickersgill.
In 1977 Austin & Pickersgill was nationalised as a member company of British Shipbuilders.[3] In 1986 the Company was privatised and merged with Sunderland Shipbuilders Ltd to form North East Shipbuilders Ltd.[4] However both the Southwick and the Doxford Pallion Shipbuilding Yards closed in 1988 following negotiations with the European Commission to reduce shipbuilding capacity in the UK.[5]
In 1989 the Company adopted the name A & P Appledore International to reflect the acquisition of Appledore Shipbuilders.[6] The Company then focused on shiprepairs rather than shipbuilding,[7] becoming A&P Group in 1995[8] and being acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland in 1997.[8]
In 2001 the Company acquired Cammell Laird, which at the time had yards at Birkenhead, Teesside and Tyneside,[9] but then in 2005 sold the Birkenhead Yard to Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders.[10].
In 2005 A&P closed the facilities in Southampton (King George V Dock ) and the four dock complex in Wallsend, Newcastle to focus all ship repair activity in the newer facilities in Hebburn (A&P Tyne), A&P Tees to support the important Southern North Sea offshore oil ad gas operations and dredging contractors and the strategically situated Falmouth operation (A&P Falmouth).
[edit] Ship Production
A&P maximised the competitiveness of its prefabrication process by producing ships to standard designs rather than individual specifications. From 1962 onwards the company offered standard bulk carriers in a range of sizes designated according to tonnage.
A&P's most numerous product was another of its standard designs, the SD14 shelter deck cargo ship. During the Second World War, shipyards in the USA had delivered more than 2,700 shelter deck cargo ships of a type called the Liberty ship.[11] By the 1960s many Liberty ships were reaching the end of their service lives, so in 1965 A&P started to develop a low-cost shelter-deck cargo vessel to replace them.[11]
A&P invited other UK shipbuilders to tender for licences to produce SD14's, but by 1966 only Bartram's could meet A&P's requirement to build each ship to a selling price of £915,000. Both Bartram's and A&P built their first SD14's in 1967[1] and handed them to their new owners in February 1968. A&P's takeover of Bartram's followed in October.[1]
In 1967 A&P licenced Hellenic Shipyards Co. of Skaramangas in Greece to build twenty SD14's. In 1971 A&P licenced Companhia Comércio e Navegação to build SD14's at Mauá in Brazil.
In 1973 Robb Caledon Shipbuilding of Dundee in Scotland contracted to build three SD14's. Astilleros y Fábricas Navales del Estado also obtained permission to build six SD14's in its yard at Ensenada in Argentina.
By the time production ceased 211 SD14's had been built either at A&P's Southwick and South Dock yards and or by licencees in Greece, Brazil, Scotland and Argentina.[11] The largest volume of sales was to Greek shipowners.[11] The SD14 and B-series standard ship designs, and the prefabrication methods by which they were built enabled A&P to maintain a full order book right up until nationalisation in 1977, in contrast to many other UK shipbuilders at the time.
[edit] Operations
[edit] A&P Tyne
A&P Tyne is located at Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, UK and is positioned along the River Tyne. The facility consists of two dry docks (only one is currently in use), two quays and a large steel fabrication shed. The facility also has eight cranes lifting up to 100 tonnes, a steel workshop, joinery workshop and engineering workshop.
The dry dock at A&P Tyne is the largest on the east coast of the UK. It is 259 meters in length, 45.7 metres wide and has a depth of 5.6 metres below the datum of navigational charts allowing it to accommodate a wide variety of ships. The two quays are called Bede Quay and West Quay.
[edit] A&P Tees
A&P Tees is located in Middlesbrough, UK and is located on the mouth of the River Tees. The yard has two dry docks and six cranes ranging up to forty tonnes lifting capacity. Dry dock number one has a length of 175.4 metres, a breadth of 23.4 metres and a depth of 1.7 metres below chart datum. Dry dock number two has a length of 120 metres, a breadth of 18.6 metres and a depth below chart datum of 0.37 metres. Like A&P Tyne, A&P Tees has a wide variety of workshops and fabrication sheds around the site.
[edit] A&P Falmouth
A&P Falmouth is located in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK on the mouth of the River Fal. The yard is located in the third largest natural deep water harbour in the world, and is the largest ship repair complex in the UK. A&P Falmouth has three large graving docks and can accommodate ships up to 100,000 DWT.
Number two dock (known as Queen Elizabeth dock) is the largest graving dock and has a length of 252.8 metres, a breadth of 39.6 metres and a depth below chart datum of 5.6 metres. Dock number three has a length of 220.98 metres, a breadth of 28.04 metres and a depth below chart datum of 3.2 metres. Dock number four has a length of 172.5 metres, a breadth of 26.21 metres and a depth below chart datum of 2.9 metres. Four wharfs are also situated in the yard: County Wharf, Duchy Wharf, Queens Wharf and South of Queens Wharf.
The yard has six cranes, with a total load capacity of up to sixty tonnes. A steel fabrication shed, engineering workshop, electrical workshop and joiners workshop are also present.
[edit] Military Work
For many years A&P Group has been a long-term supplier to UK MoD. The Company has increased this involvement by becoming a major supplier for RFA and RN maintenance, repair, conversions alongside fabrication work in support of contracts for the new LSD(A) vessels, Queen Elizebeth Class Aircraft Carriers(CVF) and militarised Patrol Craft for overseas Governments.
A&P Group employ 1000 skilled crafts people directly in shipyards around the UK and indirectly hundreds more through long term arrangements with UK based suppliers. A&P shipyards all contribute hugely to local economies in the North East and South West of England and work closely with partners in local government to maximise the potential for employment and economic growth in the areas in which the Company has been operating for over 150 years.
Most recently A&P has undetaken fabrication work undertaken at the Tyne facility which produced 60% of the modules delivered for the two LSD(A) RFA vessels built on the Tyne and the further delivery to BAE Systems of ship sections for the important export contracts of patrol ships for Oman and Trinidad & Tobago. A&P has also recently been awarded contracts for the fabrication work for QEC aircraft carrier modules using the new panel line facility in Hebburn that has a capacity of in excess of 12,000 tonnes in completed steel units per year.
A&P Group is at the forefront of a major initiative that provides a whole ship maintenance approach on a long term basis for the RFA flotilla via the RFA Clusters contract that is now in the second year of operation. A partnership was created between MoD and A&P Team for the management of RFA Argus and the four Bay Class LSD(A) ships from the RFA Cluster support base at the waterfront in A&P Falmouth. This Team is charged with day-to-day support of the five ships, together with planning future maintenance periods, resolution of operational defects, developing specifications for new work, oversight of maintenance periods in the UK and overseas and providing support teams to carry out complex maintenance cycles in operational locations. To date they have carried out 15 major projects, 8 of which were overseas close to operations and all were on time and within budget.
A&P Group have recently completed the conversion of RFA Argus to the new role of Primary Casualty Receiving Facility (PCRF) and Aviation Training Ship with an extended service life to 2020 and beyond. This major project (the largest single conversion project in RFA history) has involved A&P in every facet of the conversion procurement cycle from planning, design, specification and delivery of the conversion project in a record production phase of just eleven months.
A&P Group looks forward to an involvement on the new MARS Tanker Programme, building on experience of conversions and support to the RFA over recent years. There are also further opportunities in the expanding QEC carrier programme, in the regeneration of RN and RFA vessels for overseas Governments, and also seek to expand capabilities to provide support to the RN both ashore and afloat.
A&P Group is currently working closely with MoD Disposal Services Agency (DSA) on the regeneration of ex-UK MoD vessels for sale to overseas navies. A&P recently completed the regeneration of the ex-RFA Sir Bedivere on behalf of the Brazilian Navy and are now in the process of regenerating two Hunt Class Mine Counter Measure Vessels for delivery to the Lithuanian Navy in 2011 in conjunction with Thales.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Shipbuilding on the Wear
- ^ London & Overseas Freighters
- ^ What was the last nationalisation? BBC News, 18 February 2008
- ^ Tyne & Wear Archives
- ^ Last shipyard BBC News, 28 November 2008
- ^ Parliamentary Written Answers 18 April 1989
- ^ A&P Group: Home page
- ^ a b The Manufacturer
- ^ A&P Holdings acquires Cammell Laird Holdings
- ^ Ocean Liner Museum
- ^ a b c d Old timers can't contain their enthusiasm as SD14 workhorse remains a model of success Cape Times, 3 August 2005
[edit] Further reading
- Lingwood, John. SD14 The Great British Shipbuilding Success Story. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0 9500044 8 0.
- Lingwood, John. SD14: The Full Story. Focus. ISBN 0 978 1 901703 641.
- Ritchie, LA. The Shipbuilding Industry, a guide to historical records. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- For details of the company archives see Tyne & Wear Archives Service
