New owner of Cammell Laird shipyard tells LBN he regards himself as ‘custodian’ of the history of the yard and plans to open a public visitor centre – but insists the name change is here to stay after the £150m acquisition. Tony McDonough reports

Cammell Laird’s new owner is sticking by his decision to change the name of the historic Birkenhead shipyard.

However, Simon Gillett the founder and chief executive of Balaena Group which has bought Lairds, told LBN he regards himself as “custodian” of the history of the yard and plans to open a public visitor centre.

Balaena, a Cornwall-based maritime engineering and shipbuilding group, has acquired Cammell Laird’s parent company APCL Group, which also includes two other shipyard and engineering businesses, A&P Tyne and A&P Falmouth, for £150m from Peel Group owners the Whittaker family.

Combined turnover of the APCL Group is more than £250m although Cammell Laird is by far the biggest of the three entities with annual revenues of almost £163m. A&P Falmouth revenues are £64m while A&P Tyne is £28m.

Balaena also owns the historic dry dock and dockyard facility in Gibraltar, Gibdock, and a shipyard in Padstow, Cornwall.

Shortly after the deal was announced it was revealed all the assets of the enlarged business, including Cammell Laird, would now bear the Balaena name. Lairds will be called Balaena Birkenhead.

The yard has been called Cammell Laird for more than 120 years and it resonates not just in Merseyside, but across the maritime world. William Laird established The Laird Company, an iron works, in 1824. In 1903 it merged with Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield to form Cammell Laird.

The latest name change has not gone down well with many people locally with countless social media comments expressing dismay. But Simon is adamant the change of name is crucial to the company’s competitiveness in a global market.

In an interview with LBN he said: “I have been reading all the comments about the name change and it is all about history. I am now the caretaker of an awful lot of history and Cammell Laird is a part of the history that I am a custodian of.

“I have 350 years of Gibraltan maritime history to look after and I have 150 years of Cornish history to look after as well as the Tyne and Falmouth.

“When we were looking at what this group has to be for the future, putting the history to one side for a moment, it had to have one name. If we want to compete with the Babcocks and the BAEs of this world we have to adopt a brand.

“We wrestled with this for a very long time. We just thought the best way is to treat all the elements equally. All of the yards are equal in our world.

“I appreciate that in the local geography each of the yards has their own stories and their own history. We had to make a call for this ever-changing world and come up with a brand that was punchy and clean.

“We all share the common idea of building and fixing more ships, creating more jobs and creating a whole new set of history in each of those yards.

“We want to protect the history as much as possible but I also have to think about our future in the global market. Balancing those two will be so important.”

Simon hopes to offset the local disappointment of the name change by eventually opening up the Birkenhead site to the public. Due to the often sensitive nature of the work, including military contracts, shipyards are rarely open to the public.

Cammell Laird is no exception. With its giant shed the yard is highly visible on both sides of the River Mersey and yet, unless they have worked there or been an official visitor, few people on Merseyside have ever set foot on the premises. Simon is keen to change that.

He explained: “When our new website is fully live you are going to see an awful lot of the history of the yards. One of the things we are keen to do with each of the yards is build visitor centres and open the yards up to the public. We have been talking to local MPs about this. All that archive we want to bring to life and to make it real.”

In Cammell Laird, Simon is taking on a facility that employs around 700 people and is enjoying one of the most successful and stable periods of its near 200-year history. However, things were looking considerably bleaker in 2021.

Taking on the £200m project to build the polar research vessel Sir David Attenborough had initially brought the company a bucketload of prestige. However, cost overruns threatened to hole the firm below the waterline.

Since then it has seen a remarkable turnaround. In November 2025, it posted its accounts for the 12 months to March 31, 2025, on Companies House. They showed a business in rude health with an 11% rise in revenues to £162.8m and pre-tax profits up 17% to almost £8.1m.

Simon said it will be business as usual at Birkenhead for the time being. He acknowledges the recent success of the model and is keen to build on that rather than change for change’s sake.

He added: “First of all it is ears wide open and mouth shut. We have to listen and keep what we have got. I don’t know all of the ingredients yet so I can’t tell you what kind of cake I am going to bake.

“But we are spending a lot of time now working that out. It is business as usual but we also have some very exciting ideas. I am with the people from APCL now and we have shared a bit of the vision with them and we are all excited to feed this into our model.

“Sir David Attenborough was a fantastic vessel to be built but it was an elephant in one mouthful. It was a big thing to take on.

“We will take our time to build up to the level of complexity of such projects but we will get there and we will look to do larger and larger projects.”

Shipyards are a risky proposition at the best of times. Cammell Laird itself has a history of ‘boom and bust’, although has now built what appears to be a more sustainable and diverse model.

It still takes on large-scale projects, such as work for BAE on the Royal Navy next generation frigates, but is also heavily focused on ship repair and servicing for which it has multiple customers. Workers at the yard have also just built the new £26m Mersey Ferry Royal Daffodil.

Simon is confident the acquisition of the APCL Group creates a business with the right mix to compete globally. He said: “We understand the APCL Group as we have been working together for the past five years.

“We do the same thing and we are already customers of each other and partners with each other. What we have here in Gibraltar is agility and light of foot and what you have with the APCL Group is more of a legacy business.

“You combine the two and take the best bits. It really is one plus one equals three.

“There are three main sectors in our world – there is MOD and defence, there is renewable energy and there is offshore oil and gas. Each one of those three have been destabilised and with it the market looks to grow off the back of that instability.

“Oil supplies aren’t as reliable as they used to be so people need to focus on renewable energy strategies. There will be more drilling and the navy needs to be there more to defend those activities. We can see growth in all of those sectors for us.”

Far East shipbuilders have become dominant in the global market and yards in the UK have struggled to compete. The UK Government has pledged to favour UK companies for naval contracts but the commercial market is wide open.

Simon insists not all customers are simply focused on cost and believes Baleana can compete globally on quality. He explained: “Sat here in Gibraltar I can see Spain and I can see Africa.

“We are at the mouth of the Mediterranean and the competition is all around us. The important thing is that this company is going to £400m-turnover this year, it is going to have 2,000 employees and 12 dry docks.

“There is a lot of comfort that people get from that so cost isn’t always going to be at the forefront of everyone’s minds. You can buy cheap and buy twice or you can buy expensive and buy once sometimes.

“We will need to compete at the right price point with the right quality and find the right customers to come with us. We are not going to trade on being the cheapest, a safe workforce and happy customers and that will be the bedrock of our business.”

Simon accepts people locally will remain attached to the Cammell Laird name, adding: “Every person has a story attached to names like Lairds or Cammell Laird that I can’t compete with. People will carry on using the old names and it won’t offend me.

“But when we are out there talking about this brand and this company that is looking to create an awful lot of growth then a single brand is what works for us.”