TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Friday February 9 1996

Shipyard wins £1.5m contract

Campbeltown Shipyard has netted a £1.5 million order which will safeguard the jobs of all its workers for most of 1996.

Campbeltown Shipyard Ltd this week signed a contract to design and build a new trawler for the Fraserburgh-based Steadfast Fishing Company. The contract is for a 25-metre trawler with the latest electronic equipment.

Building work will start at the Trench Point yard later this month. The vessel will be finished in October at Buckie Shipyard in Grampian, which was acquired by Campbeltown Shipyard’s parent company Lithgows Ltd last year. The vessel will be the first to benefit from Lithgows’ new shipbuilding system which integrates computer-aided design and manufacturing at Campbeltown with Buckie Shipyard’s finishing craftsmanship.

Steadfast Fishing Company’s senior partner Mr Sandy West said: ‘I am delighted that in spite of the severe competition during tendering for this work that not only were we able to place this contract with a Scottish yard, but that it should be the combined Lithgows’ yards – thus enabling us to benefit from their long tradition of excellence in shipbuilding and marine engineering.’

Managing director of Lithgows Ltd Mr Hugh Currie said the order was a further endorsement of the Campbeltown and Buckie yards’ reputation for quality.

He said: ‘The new contract will ensure ongoing employment for our existing workforce for the year ahead.’