Ferguson Marine boss sacked as more ferry delays 'likely'

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.

It comes as the Scottish government said there would "likely" be further delays to the delivery of Glen Sannox, which was due in May.

The cost of the two ferries is running at nearly four times the initial £97m cost and they will be delivered six years late.

Mr Tydeman joined the Port Glasgow shipyard 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."

Economy Secretary Mairi McAllan said Mr Tydeman's sacking was a matter for the Ferguson board and that 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."

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.

David Tydeman took on what some would consider a near-impossible job. And he's been bundled out after just over two years.

His challenge was immense, and two-fold. Firstly, to deliver two Calmac ferries which are grossly over-budget and years late. And secondly, to knock the Ferguson shipyard into shape to allow it to win more shipbuilding contracts.

When he showed me round the MV Glen Sannox last year he was blunt about the mistakes made in its construction before he took on the job. And he was clear-eyed about the mountain of work required to get the vessel into service.

But he was upbeat. The vessel was almost ready to sail, he said. And the yard had made great strides, he claimed, in developing the systems needed to build other ships in future.

So his sacking - apparently for highlighting yet another problem with the timing and cost of these two troubled ferries -- seems odd.

Can his replacement hope to do any better?