New owner Macduff to reopen Buckie Shipyard

Hopes were raised yesterday that work will return to Buckie Shipyard after it was bought out of administration by Aberdeen-based peer Macduff.

The Buckie yard went under in August with the loss of 68 jobs but Macduff said that it planned to reopen the site.

Managing director John Watt said: “Macduff Shipyards remains very busy and we continue to develop as a business. This facility will enable greater flexibility in our continued diversification”.

Buckie Shipyard, founded in 1903, designed, built and maintained boats for customers including Orkney Ferries & Harbours, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Scottish Sea Farms, and turned over £3 million.

The administration was blamed on severe cash-flow problems stemming from “unsustainable costs, a marked contraction in demand and intensive price-led competition”.

Tom MacLennan, who was joint administrator for Buckie, said: “We are very pleased there has been a sale of the facilities and hopefully it will lead to renewed employment in the area.”

MacLennan and Iain Fraser became joint administrators of Buckie as heads of the Scottish restructuring practice of RSM Tenon, the former accountancy firm now part of Baker Tilly.

Yesterday it was announced the pair had moved to the restructuring and recovery group FRP Advisory, taking their 28-strong team with them to form a Scottish division for the English firm.

It marks the third breakaway by former partners at RSM Tenon in Scotland since Baker Tilly bought the firm in a “pre-pack” deal in August. Eight of the partner team of the former RSM Tenon office in Edinburgh joined Mazars in October, while partners in Glasgow have left to set up their own business.