New yacht building yard in UK

For decades, Palmer Johnson in the US has produced some of the world’s largest luxury motor yachts and, last week, president and CEO Mike Kelsey Jr. confirmed that the company was opening a shipyard in England, in part because of skilled labor shortages in northeastern Wisconsin.

Palmer Johnson is not downsizing its Sturgeon Bay facility, which employs hundreds of people and has been expanded this year. “But capacity is an issue here. There are only so many employees that we can get to do what we do. We can only train so many apprentices at a time,” Kelsey said.

Palmer Johnson plans to build a 300-foot yacht, its biggest ever, at the British shipyard that will open in 2009. Britain beat competition from Dubai, France and Turkey to win the location. The company chose Britain for its shipyard because of the skilled work force as well as the country’s maritime heritage. “There were a lot of good ship workers searching for jobs,” Kelsey said.

Palmer Johnson uses Italian marine designer Nuvolari-Lenard to create its yacht interiors. Some of the company’s vessels, in a category known as super yachts, cost tens of millions of dollars. “I think the product we build lends itself to the Mediterranean crowd,” Kelsey said.