The Commercial Marine Division of Rolls-Royce employs 5,000 people in 33 companies world-wide, of which more than 2,000 staff work in former Ulstein companies in Norway. The headquarters in Ulsteinvik in Norway is serviced by around 90 managerial, administrative and technical staff.
The Naval Marine Division is currently based within the Rolls-Royce complex in Derby in the UK but is likely to be relocated to another Rolls-Royce site at Bristol in the UK.
1.2 Company Performance
Due to the considerable restructuring that has taken place involving the businesses that now constitute Rolls-Royce's marine interests, historical data relating to company performance has to be drawn from the accounts of Vickers as well as Rolls-Royce.
Vickers
In 1998 Vickers Marine achieved sales of slightly under £200 million (around Yen 32,000 million) and earned profit of just under £17 million (around Yen 2,600). Vickers Marine accounted for around 29 per cent of the turnover of the Vickers Group as a whole, but of the Group's three divisions it made the biggest contribution to profits, contributing 36 per cent of the total.
Between 1997 and 1998 most of the businesses within the Marine Division were said to have improved their performance, with notably higher levels of sales of winches and thrusters to the offshore oil and gas industry. In addition cost saving initiatives were progressed to protect and enhance margins, notably in Sweden and in the UK.
Following the acquisition of VUMS at the end of 1998, it was expected that during 1999 profits generated by the Marine Division would have improved further. This optimism was based on both Vickers' strong presence in those segments of the marine market that have been growing most rapidly and the significant opportunities to cut costs that the acquisition of Ulstein provided.
