cruise liner – Licensed & Catering News (LCN) – News Coverage from the Local Trade

Covid storm sees NI cruise ship fit-out firm’s sales drop 75%

Joe Kearney — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 13:07:17 +0000

A Northern Ireland firm which fits-out cruise ships saw its turnover collapse by nearly 75% in the first year of the pandemic.

MJM Group’s sales in 2020 stood at £32m compared to £117m in 2019.

The Newry-based company said 95% of its 2020 turnover came in the first quarter of the year, before the full effect of the pandemic was felt.

Despite the huge sales drop, the company still made a pre-tax profit of almost £7m, compared to a profit of almost £18m in 2019.

Like many others, the firm was able to use the furlough scheme and made 167 workers redundant, a move it said was “necessary in order to secure the future of the business”.

Its annual accounts describe how the months before the pandemic were among the busiest in the company’s history.

The directors noted that at the end of 2020, the business was “in a strong cash position” and had adequate resources to trade as a going concern for the foreseeable future.

The cruise industry was one of the sectors worst hit by Covid-related shutdowns in 2020.

The industry’s largest company, US giant Carnival, reported losses of $10bn (£7.4bn) in 2020 after revenues fell 73% during the pandemic.

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Titanic replica to set sail by 2022

Wendy McCague — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 17:13:13 +0000

An Australian businessman is to spend $500m to construct a replica of the Belfast-built Titanic, the cruise liner which sank in 1912 with the loss of more than 1500 lives.

Dubbed Titanic II, the ship will mirror its namesake almost exactly in terms of its dimensions, its architecture and the layout of its rooms.

Clive Palmer is the man behind the project and he hopes that the replica liner will be ready to carry 2,400 passengers across the Atlantic by 2022.

In an interview with the Blue Star Line recently, Palmer is quoted as saying, ‘We want to recreate…the whole experience, the wonder that was in Titanic, and I think we can do that.’

The project was originally announced as far back as 2013 but a series of financial snags caused it to be delayed.

Once launched, the modern liner would sail along the same route as its ill-fated predecessor, from Southampton to New York. However, the replica will be fitted out with 21^st century navigational technology and shouldn’t fall victim to the same fate as the original.

Ticket prices are not yet available for the cruise, but by way of comparison, the cost of a bunk in a third-class cabin would be around £277 in today’s money and a first-class cabin would have set you back a staggering £79,000.

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