There was a man who built a boat to sail away and it sank – JP Donleavy in The Ginger Man
Ferguson Marine boss sacked amid ferry delays at Firth of Clyde yard
By Lucy Ashton and Bill Heaney
BBC Scotland is reporting that the head of the company building two delayed and over-budget CalMac ferries has been sacked.
Chief executive David Tydeman’s contract was terminated by Ferguson Marine as the board attempt to ensure the company’s “long-term future”.
The exact reasons for his departure have not been revealed.
The cost of the two ferries is running at nearly four times the initial £97 MILLION cost and they will be delivered six years late.
Mr Tydeman joined the Port Glasgow shipyard across the River Clyde in 2022, having previously run a yacht-building company.
Non-executive director John Petticrew is taking over as interim chief executive.
Mr Tydeman had recently attempted to highlight progress on the first vessel, Glen Sannox, praising its performance in sea trials earlier this year.
But it emerged in February that the cost to complete the Glen Sannox will rise to between £145.5m and £149.1m, while the Glen Rosa will be delivered “no later than” September 2025.
The total cost for both ferries is now close to £400m.
Mr Tydeman’s sacking comes amid a number of changes among the state-owned company’s senior management.
Board chairman Andrew Miller said: “Ferguson Marine needs strong leadership to ensure its long-term future. The board recognised that action needed to be taken to restructure the current leadership team and it has taken these steps to address this.
“Our focus is on the completion of Glen Sannox and hull 802 (Glen Rosa), and the implementation of a robust business plan to improve the commercial viability of Ferguson Marine.
“With this new senior management team in place and a full complement of board members, we have the breadth and depth of experience and capability to drive forward these plans.”
She was focusing on getting the ferries finished, driving down costs and securing a “sustainable future” for the yard and workers.
She said: “While the yard had previously stated that the delivery date for Glen Sannox was planned for late May, we are aware that, in the last week, the outgoing CEO intimated further delay was likely.
“That is unacceptable. I know the board are intent on doing everything they can to ensure that delay does not happen.
“I will be stressing to the new interim CEO and the board the importance of the ferries entering service to our island communities as soon as possible.”
Repeated delays, increased costs
Construction of the two vessels, the first ships ever built by a UK shipyard capable of running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), has been plagued by design challenges since the order was placed in 2015.
Steel fabrication outpaced detailed design work, leading to errors and reworking, with repeated delays and cost increases that continued after the Port Glasgow yard fell back into administration and was nationalised in 2019.
In February, Mr Miller told MSPs it would be harder to return the business to the private sector without investment in a new automated plating line – with the company seeking further finance from the Scottish government.
The company is due to submit a new business case to ministers by the end of March.
In 2022, a number of Ferguson Marine workers who took part in an informal meeting with MSPs praised Mr Tydeman’s leadership and compared him favourably to the shipyard’s previous management, saying he “talked sense”.
Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson MSP described Mr Tydeman as a “scapegoat” and said ministers had to explain why he had been fired.
“The only people not held accountable are those who are most responsible: the SNP government,” he said. “It beggars belief that not a single ministerial resignation has been offered when the buck stops with them for years of grotesque mismanagement of Scotland’s ferry network.
“While they try to pass the buck with another round of boardroom hiring and firing, our betrayed island communities continue to wait for the lifeline vessels they were promised years ago to finally be delivered.”
Scottish Labour’s transport spokesperson Alex Rowley said: “This sudden overhaul raises serious questions and the public deserve transparency about what has happened.
“The skilled and dedicated workers at this yard have been badly failed by successive leaderships and by this incompetent SNP government – the new board must do right by them and secure a thriving future for the yard.
“Workers, islanders and taxpayers have all been failed throughout this fiasco – it is essential that this new leadership gets things back on track and delivers these lifeline ferries with no more delays and overruns,” he added.
Responding to the news that the chief executive of Ferguson Marine, David Tydeman, has been sacked after telling Scottish Government ministers that there will be further cost increases to the building of two new ferries and that further delays are “likely,” Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said:
“It looks like David Tydeman was sacked by the SNP for telling uncomfortable truths. We know that he was being upfront about further costs and delays, but it seems the Scottish Government didn’t like that and decided to shoot the messenger. Is he a scapegoat for SNP failures?
“I also understand that the new chief executive lives in Canada, so the Cabinet Secretary must explain how that will work.
“We need an urgent statement to the Scottish Parliament.
“Despite all the disruption at Ferguson Marine, lifelines ferries have never arrived, and islanders are just expected to suck it up. It’s time for the government to stop the scapegoating, explain what is going on at the yard and accept some accountability itself.”
ENDS