Social Value.
Supporting our Community
Cammell Laird has been at the forefront of UK shipbuilding and ship repair for more than 120 years. It has played a pivotal role in supporting the Merseyside community, sustaining vital jobs and creating a lifeline for the Merseyside, North-West and the wider UK economy.
Cammell Laird provides huge potential for skilled employment in engineering trades in the region. We have a policy of recruiting locally first and then nationally.
Skills for the Future
Cammell Laird’s apprenticeship programme was established in 1997 and we are proud to say we have a course completion rate of 99%.
Cammell Laird currently recruits 50 new apprentices every year and today there are 171 apprentices in training at the facility. This figure will increase to 200 by 2025.
Our senior management team’s commitment to skills and the growth of apprenticeships was recognised most recently in November 2023 when Cammell Laird was awarded the ‘Future Skills Award’ at the 2023 Mersey Maritime Awards.
To try and provide a sense of how our business and apprenticeship programme works in harmony, the average age of our workforce is just 42 and the numbers who qualify from our apprenticeship scheme – we believe – speak for themselves.
- Half of Cammell Laird’s operational board are former apprentices, including Mike Hill, our Managing Director.
- All our production supervisors are former apprentices.
- A total of 80% of production management staff are former apprentices.
- Three-quarters of our project managers are former apprentices.
We proactively seek local suppliers and subcontractors, and we expect our supply chain to have a ratio of 1:10 apprentices to employees.
Economic Factors
Cammell Laird’s aim is to provide sustainable employment for the communities and industries which support us.
Cammell Laird continues to play a pivotal role in supporting the local community, sustaining vital jobs and attracting wider investment.
Cammell Laird currently supports 650 employees, 1,500 subcontractors and 171 apprentices.
Our policy is to re-invest our profits in our employees and our shipyard, to develop and build the facilities and increase capacity.
Cammell Laird will develop a cutting-edge Green Shore Power Project, following a £3.5m funding injection from the UK Department for Transport’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 4 (CMDC4).
The £7m project will be the first of its kind in the UK and provide a zero-carbon onshore power solution, removing the dependence of vessels undergoing repair, refit or build on fossil fuel-based power supplies at the famous Mersey shipyard.
As we maintain our growth, we continue to invest in our facilities to ensure they are of a modern standard.
Our Supply Chain
Cammell delivers significant economic value through its supply chain.
In the last five years alone, Cammell Laird has spent around £400M in the supply chain on a vast array of goods, services and materials which support both the operation/infrastructure of the shipyard itself and the vessel / construction projects which we have delivered to clients. Of that around a third (£130M) has been spent in the local area, benefiting more than 300 businesses.
Cammell Laird has a robust approved list of suppliers which are assessed to ensure that they can provide the right quality of product on time, every time.
Making An Impact
Cammell Laird’s most recent build - the RRS Sir David Attenborough is a Polar Research Ship whose contract was valued at c£150M, with over 80% of that budget spent with UK registered companies.
£23M was spent on UK Shipbuilding skills and facilities and an estimated £7M recouped through income tax on shipyard employees and subcontractors working on the project. One and half million manhours was expended in the shipyard developing and sustaining vital shipbuilding skills.
Supporting the Local Community
Cammell Laird is committed to supporting our local community and the company works with and supports various third sector organisations.
The child poverty figure for our community (Birkenhead and Tranmere) is circa 40% and is amongst the highest in the UK.
Through donations, fundraising dinners and sponsored events, the Company has raised in excess of £110,000.
