SINGAPORE (Dec 2): During a recent visit to Grand Banks Yachts’ yard at Pasir Gudang, Johor, its shareholders were delighted to see that the 55,000 sq m factory was running at almost full capacity. During their last site visit on Nov 23, 2017, there was a lot of unused space. This time, the only empty spaces were carefully planned pathways. GBY currently operates at almost full capacity, building 30 to 35 boats annually.
The better performance did not come about by accident. “We have pretty much completely rebuilt the company, [in] every aspect of the business, from management, production and finance to product,” CEO Mark Richards tells The Edge Singapore in an interview.
“It has been a massive transformation, bringing this 60-year-old company to a totally different direction in the past five years,” says Richards, who was appointed to this role in August 2014 after GBY acquired his boat-building business Palm Beach Motor Yachts for A$10 million.
